Welder

Work description

Pennum, Inc. (Pennum) is an engineering, construction, and industrial fabrication company headquartered at 11957 FM-529, Houston, Texas 77041. Pennum needs to hire 60 workers to provide Welding, a skilled fabrication job, in the construction of modules to deliver per its contract with Kiewit Offshore Services. This need for labor or services qualifies under the regulations governing the H-2B Program as a temporary peakload need. See 20 C.F.R. 655.6; 8 C.F.R. 214.2(h)(6)(ii)(F). It may qualify under other applicable standards and Pennum would respectfully request that its need be independently considered under those standards. Before discussing the specifics of its peakload need, Pennum would like to offer a word about its background. For over 20 years, Pennum has operated an independent, wholly owned engineering and fabrication facilities in the Houston, Texas area. Its integrated model spans seven coordinated service lines: Engineering; Procurement; Construction; Shop Fabrication; Inspection and Survey; and Pre-Project Development. Pennums shop fabrication operations cover both Mechanical Fabrication (structural steel and process piping) and Electrical and Instrumentation Fabrication. More information is available below, at www.pennum.com, and in Exhibit A and A1. Pennums work centers on the fixed-facility infrastructure of the oil and gas midstream and production sector. Pennum employs a permanent workforce of Welders to perform the steel structural and piping welding needed (hence, the name). More details are provided below and in Exhibit B. The regulations state: [t]he employer's need [for non-agricultural labor or services] is considered temporary if justified to the CO as one of the following: A one-time occurrence; a seasonal need; a peakload need; or an intermittent need, as defined by DHS regulations. It is therefore necessary to look to DHS regulations to locate the definition of a peakload need. DHS regulations state: Temporary services or labor under the H-2B classification refers to any job in which the petitioner's need for the duties to be performed by the employee(s) is temporary, whether or not the underlying job can be described as permanent or temporary. 8 C.F.R. 214.2(h)(6)(F)(ii). Thus, the question is whether the specific need for non-agricultural labor or services described in the Application is temporary has a near, definable end not whether the underlying job can be described as permanent. When an employer has a temporary need for non-agricultural labor or services above and beyond its normal baseline, it would have a peakload need. The regulations state that if an employer regularly employs permanent workers to perform the services or labor at the place of employment and needs to supplement its permanent staff at the place of employment on a temporary basis due to a seasonal or short-term demand, it has a temporary need so long as the temporary additions to staff will not become a part of the petitioner's regular operation. 8 C.F.R. 214.2(h)(6)(F)(ii). Pennum has a peakload need under this definition. It regularly employs permanent workers to perform welding services at the place of employment. See Exhibit B. It needs to supplement its permanent workforce on a temporary basis to do this new work. See Exhibit C, KOS-Pennum LOI and Exhibit M Current Pennum active projects. To set it out in a slightly different way, Pennums need satisfies each element: Pennum regularly employs permanent Welders. Structural and pipe welding is one of Pennums core trades, not occasional or incidental work. Pennum employs a permanent, year-round crew of Welders who perform continuous shop fabrication at its Houston facility and has employed workers in this occupation permanently for two decades. The occupation for which temporary workers are sought is the same occupation Pennum staffs permanently.