Senate Bill Would Ban Employers From Hiring Foreign Workers After Mass U.S. Layoffs

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced legislation (S. 2804) Nov. 19 that aims to prohibit employers that conduct mass layoffs of U.S. workers from hiring foreign labor through temporary guestworker programs.

The legislation would apply to any company with more than 100 employees that lays off 50 or more workers.

Currently, the economic stimulus package includes a similar provision, authored by Sanders and Grassley, to prevent companies receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program funds from replacing laid-off American workers with guestworkers from overseas.

The “Employ America Act” expands upon the provision by barring any company engaged in a mass layoff of U.S. workers from hiring temporary guestworkers.

“With the unemployment rate still climbing and millions of people looking for work, we have a responsibility to ensure that companies do not use the temporary guest-worker program to replace American workers with cheaper labor from overseas,” Sanders said.

Grassley, in a joint written statement with Sanders, said that the foreign guestworker program is in place to fill employment needs when there is a shortage of U.S. workers.

“With the unemployment rate over 10 percent, companies that undertake mass layoffs shouldn’t need to hire foreign guest workers when there are plenty of qualified Americans looking for jobs,” Grassley said.

Recently, industries that have hired tens of thousands of guestworkers from overseas have announced large-scale layoffs of U.S. workers, according to the senators.

The statement also said that the high-tech industry, a major employer of H-1B guestworkers, has laid off over 345,000 workers since August 2008. It also said the construction industry, a major employer of H-2B guestworkers, has laid off more than 1.5 million workers since December 2007.

The legislation would require employers that want to seek guestworker visas to certify that the employer has not provided a written notice of a mass layoff during the 12-month period preceding the date on which an alien is scheduled to be hired. Those employers would also have to certify that they do not intend to provide such a notice.

If an employer did provide a notice of mass layoff after an approval of a work visa, under the bill, any visas approved during the prior 12 months would expire 60 days after that notice was given.

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