Winter slows down work for farmers, which may have been why so many attended the recent Winter Horticulture conference at Pine Grove Grange.

While presentations on OSU Extension Service research dominated the agenda, a session by the Oregon Employment Department drew a lot of interest. Foreign Labor program coordinator Sharon Rood explained how growers could access labor through the Agricultural Recruitment System, a less well-known program than the H-2A program.

“H-2A can be unpleasant if you are not prepared for your responsibilities under it,” Rood said. “ARS is less stringent than H-2A.”

Both are programs that help recruit seasonal workers for agriculture. ARS is a system for recruiting domestic workers beyond the commuting distance of the job in Oregon and from other states through employment departments.

Audience members bombarded Rood with multiple questions, including one asking why growers don’t already use the ARS program.

Rood said it may be because it’s an older program that is less well-known or that workers under H-2A must work for the employer that brought them to the area.

One major difference between the two programs is that ARS requires growers to keep an open listing of the job. Parkdale grower Mike McCarthy shared his experiences. He found a match last summer for a trial with seven workers through the Arizona Department of Employment.

“It worked very well for me,” he said. “In San Luis, Ariz., it’s 114 degrees when we start picking Bartletts here. They (the workers) were more than happy to be in Parkdale at that time.”

According to the employment department: “employers using the ARS are required by federal law to offer wages, benefits, and working conditions which at least meet the prevailing wages, benefits, and practices for that occupation in the local area” as determined by agency surveys.

Rood conducted such prevailing conditions surveys last summer with several growers.

The H-2A program is for times when an employer is concerned that sufficient domestic workers may not be available or recruited on time through ARS. For H-2A, “terms and conditions of the job, the benefits offered all workers in the job, the recruitment process for domestic workers and the oversight process, however, must meet requirements beyond those of ARS job listings.”