Wagner-Peyser Act

All career centers have an obligation to locate and contact MSFWs who are not being reached by normal intake activities conducted by career centers. Outreach is not limited to those offices designated as significant MSFW career centers or significant multilingual MSFW career centers. Significant MSFW career centers are those centers where MSFWs account for 10 percent or more of annual participants in employment service activities.

Significant multilingual MSFW career centers are centers where 10 percent or more of the MSFW participants are estimated to require service provision in a language(s) other than English. Florida has ten career centers designated as significant multilingual MSFW career centers (referred to as “significant offices”) located in Winter Haven, Bradenton, Tampa, Sebring, Wauchula, Port Saint Lucie, Belle Glade, Homestead, Immokalee and Clewiston. Each significant office has at least one full-time, year-round outreach worker assigned to conduct outreach duties. State merit staff performing outreach are bilingual and whenever possible, have a MSFW background or are members of a minority group representative of the MSFW population.

Outreach to the MSFW community is accomplished through personal contacts, printed material, the media, community involvement and cooperative ventures with private and public agencies. Outreach workers make personal contacts with MSFWs daily to explain services available through one-stop career centers and other agencies, including the availability of referrals to employment, training and supportive services; information on specific employment opportunities currently available, such as H-2A jobs and other low-skilled jobs; a summary of farmworker rights; and information on the Employment Service and Employment-Related Law Complaint System, including the Florida Farmworker Helpline.

When an MSFW seeks services at a career center, or is contacted through outreach, the services available through the career center must be explained and provided in writing. To accomplish this, all MSFWs must be provided a copy of the Notice to Job Seekers (Form DEO-511N) in their native language (available in English, Spanish and Creole). The form contains information on DEO’s toll-free Farmworker Helpline for farmworkers who may want to file a complaint, report an apparent violation or obtain employment service information. Additional materials provided during outreach include a brochure outlining basic farmworker rights and other materials from partner agencies describing available services. MSFWs are given the location of and encouraged to visit their local career center to obtain a complete range of employment and training services. The DEO-511N form includes the locations of all significant offices in Florida.

To contact the maximum number of MSFWs, outreach workers visit sites where farmworkers live, work and gather, including day-haul sites, mass recruitments and orientations at farms, migrant health clinics and sites where social services are provided. Posters and other printed materials are distributed at these locations to maximize outreach efforts into the farmworker community. Outreach workers conduct follow-up to MSFWs as necessary and appropriate to assist, ensure their needs are met and to determine if other services are necessary. DEO enhances existing relationships with local, state and federal organizations serving farmworkers, employers and employer organizations to solicit and exchange information on behalf of MSFWs.

These devices provide swifter access to the state’s online labor exchange management information system, Employ Florida. Increased resources would improve access to technology and the performance of outreach workers.

There are currently nine LWDAs designated as significant MSFW locations in Florida. Within those local areas are 10 career centers designated as significant multilingual sites.

Florida operates its ten designated significant multilingual MSFW career centers during PY 2018 - PY 2020. Following is a list of these significant career centers, along with corresponding outreach goals per program year.

Figure 7.02

MSFW Significant/Multilingual Office Locations

*Note: LWDA 15’s Plant City career center is designated by USDOL as the significant multilingual career center in this area. However, this office was closed by the LWDB due to a reduction in customers accessing services at this location. MSFWs in this area continue to be served through outreach efforts and services provided in the Tampa (Brandon) career center.

Achieving the level of services attained at career centers is attributed to the unique Florida workforce delivery system and its intensified efforts to reach and serve all customers. Outreach workers are required to spend a total of 185 staff days, or 80 percent of staff time, conducting outreach. For PY 2015, outreach workers conducted 52,504 outreach contacts with MSFWs. Of these contacts, 11,170 were staff-assisted services. For PY 2016, outreach workers conducted 46,992 outreach contacts with MSFWs. Of these contacts, 10,907 were staff-assisted services. Florida’s focus on outreach allowed it to exceed its goal of 21,550 MSFW outreach contacts by more than 118 percent. Note: This goal has been reduced to 20,550 effective PY 2017 due to one career center no longer being designated as a significant office by USDOL. For PY 2016, 566,095 Wagner-Peyser applications were entered in Employ Florida. Of those applications, 18,723 were MSFWs. Processing job applications, conducting assessments and providing non-agricultural job referrals were also emphasized to assist in year-round employment. This allowed the state to increase the number of MSFWs that were placed in permanent positions (jobs over 150 days); a measure that was missed during PY 2015 but exceeded for PY 2016.