At this point in the year, many landscaping businesses need to focus on preparing and submitting prevailing wage determinations which will ultimately be used to support the processing of H-2B applications for the upcoming 2017 Spring season. The Department of Labor recently conducted a public webinar on filing tips that will help to ensure timely processing. Here are their top 3 tips:
Do not wait! File your prevailing wage request as soon as possible. The validity period for obtaining a prevailing wage determination using the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) Wage Survey will be good through June 30, 2017, so there is no reason to delay requesting a prevailing wage determination. Even if you desire to use an employer-provided wage survey, it is a good practice to go ahead and request a wage determination for your job using the OES wage survey. There is no guarantee that the employer-provided survey will be approved; play it safe and get the OES wage determination.
Be consistent in describing your job! You should describe the job duties, in detail, to be performed by any worker filling the job opportunity. Specify the field(s) and/or product(s) involved, any equipment to be used, and pertinent working conditions. The duties provided must be consistent with and specific enough to be classified under a relevant job category as described in the O*Net publication. The O*NET task statements contained in the Landscaping/Groundskeeping position description provide a good framework.
Watch out for combination of duties! For example, if a landscape contractor wants workers to also perform supervisory duties which are not contained within the scope of a basic landscape laborer job, then please be aware that the NPWC will consider this a combination of occupations and the prevailing wage rate associated with the most appropriate O*NET code performing First-Line Supervisory duties will be taken into account when issuing the wage determination.
