Jun 25, 2025NCAE celebrates suspension of worker protection rule
The National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE), its members and the agricultural community nationwide are celebrating the suspension of a rule that falsely cast shade on America’s agricultural community.
The Department of Labor (DOL) has announced that it was suspending the “Improving Protections for Workers in Temporary Agriculture Employment in the United States” Rule, commonly known as the Worker Protection Rule.
The announcement of the suspension, which came late in the afternoon on Friday, June 20, comes after various parts of the rule were enjoined in multiple district courts because of legal action brought by NCAE and other agricultural organizations throughout the U.S.
“NCAE and our members were shocked and offended by the promulgation of the Worker Protection Rule (NPRM),” Michael Marsh, NCAE’s president and CEO, said in a news release. “America’s farm and ranch families care about their workers and work each day to ensure that their business operations are in compliance with local, state and federal regulations at significant expense.”
“From the outset, it was clear that the pejorative nature and tenor of the rule was intended to feed and foster false and inappropriate narratives about America’s agricultural community. America’s farmers and ranchers are excited and relieved that this administration put this rule out to pasture.”
NCAE met with DOL just after the proposed regulation was published to warn them that the rule was fatally flawed, according to the release. In that meeting, NCAE explained that the NPRM was an “inartful and undisguised attempt” to circumvent the Supreme Court’s decision in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid (2021).
“It was also violative of the will of Congress under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, according to the release. “NCAE told the Department it is not the role of regulators to legislate. That role belongs solely to Congress under Article I of the Constitution.”
“The Department frustratingly did not heed the advice of the agricultural community and promulgated the rule in 2024. However, America’s farmers and ranchers do not back down from a fight when the cause is just and the battle is necessary,” Marsh said in the release.
As a result of DOL’s “poor judgement in promulgating a rule that was both inappropriate in nature and offensive to the agricultural community,” DOL was met with legal action brought by NCAE alongside legal actions brought by its agricultural colleagues once the rule was finalized. Those legal actions resulted in three injunctions against the regulation in different jurisdictions. The courts agreed with America’s farm and ranch families, according to the release.
“Finally, after three different courts blocked the rule three different times, it appears the department finally agrees with NCAE and our colleagues,” Marsh said in the release. “We are glad we could convince them that America’s farm and ranch families are deserving of support, not false shade. This is a big win for America’s agricultural employers and the people working alongside them who are critical to our nation’s food security.”
Based in Arlington, Virginia, NCAE is a national trade association focusing on agricultural labor issues from the employer’s viewpoint.
