DIR Issues Revised Supplementary H-2A Wage Notice

Bryan LIttle, Farm Employers Labor Service

June 7, 2025

After California ag industry advocates expressed concern about the content of a supplementary Labor Code Section 2810.5 wage and benefit notice for H-2A temporary ag non-immigrant employees, the Department of Industrial Relations has issued a revised template notice for employers of H-2A employees to use.  The original “wage theft prevention notice” mandated by AB 636 (Kalra, D-San Jose) passed by the California Legislature in 2023, contained mis-statements of the law, and a lengthy list of farmworker-serving NGOs (non-governmental organizations).

The original notice asserted that employees must be paid for time spent being transported by their employer from housing to the worksite if they are “directly or indirectly required to use employer-provided transportation.”  The revised statement is somewhat closer to a correct statement of the , characterizing the law as requiring compensation of travel time while employees are being transported by their employer if they are “required to or have no real choice but to use employer-provided transportation.”  The revised statement still somewhat mis-states the law established by the 2000 Royal Packing decision making travel time compensable when the employee is subject to the control of the employer.  

The list of NGOs has been replaced in the revised statement by a QR code providing NGO contact information.

You can find the revised Supplemental Notice on DIR’s website in English and Spanish.  Employers of H-2A employees should immediately begin using the revised notices.