The Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association joined other agricultural organizations last week in signing a letter to four U.S. representatives who introduced the STARS Act of 2014, which adopts the White House definition of seasonal employment while simplifying and aligning the seasonal provisions of the Affordable Care Act to better enable employer compliance.

The letter emphasizes that the bipartisan legislation provides desperately needed technical corrections and clarity at a time when employers with highly seasonal workforces are having significant difficulty in determining their workforce size and employer shared responsibility requirements under the Affordable Care Act.

"While the regulatory definition of seasonal employee is clear at 6 months, the statute itself still contains the second seasonal worker definition, which leaves more room for interpretation and continues to confuse small employers as they work to comply with the law," the letter said.

Read the entire letter and view other signatories.

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