Last year, the Department of Transportation strengthened English-proficiency requirements for truck drivers. Now, the Department of Labor is getting involved, ensuring all visa workers meet the requirements before getting a job in the U.S.
Under President Donald Trump, the DOT has been on a mission to clean up trucking. A big part of that effort involves targeting unsafe foreign truck drivers, including tightening non-domiciled CDL standards and resurrecting out-of-service requirements for English-proficiency violations.
While the DOT enforces English-proficiency regulations for truck drivers already operating on American highways, the DOL is making sure foreign workers meet those requirements before entering the country.
Aligning itself with executive orders that enforce trucking rules and designate English as the official language of the U.S., the DOL is requiring all job orders and applications for foreign workers who will operate commercial vehicles to include English-proficiency requirements.
Before employers can bring in foreign workers – including EB-3, H-2A and H-2B workers – they must submit a job order and application to the DOL’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification justifying the need. While the DOL admits that a “significant portion” of employers already comply with English-proficiency regulations, explicitly requiring it in applications “ensure(s) uniformity among all employers seeking to hire foreign workers as commercial motor vehicle operators.”
“Holding employers to existing English language proficiency requirements is critical to keeping Americans safe on our roads,” Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said in a statement. “At President Trump’s direction, the Department of Labor is doing our part to ensure that foreign workers possess necessary English language skills to safely operate commercial motor vehicles.”
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is still responsible for enforcing English-proficiency rules. However, requiring foreign workers who will drive a truck to read, speak and write the language during the visa application process nips part of that issue in the bud.
An acceptable statement that meets the DOL’s new guidance includes:
The worker must be able to read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, understand highway traffic signs and signals in English, respond to official inquiries, and make entries on reports and records.
If an employer fails to include English-proficiency requirements in job orders that include driving a commercial vehicle, the visa application will be returned with a “Notice of Deficiency.” That will require the employer to fix the problem before the work visas can be granted.
The DOL’s new English-proficiency requirement comes as guidance in the form of frequently asked questions. Although guidance is not legally binding, it reveals how an agency interprets laws and enforces regulations, thereby shaping industry behavior.
New English-proficiency requirements for visa job orders and applications go into effect on June 15. LL
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