The Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) posted the following description of enhancements to the iCERT Prevailing Wage Module. There will be an iCERT system outage between 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. EST on February 6, 2012 to implement the changes.
iCERT enhancement Release Date: February 6, 2012. The Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has also posted a User Guide to assist users of the ETA 9141 Prevailing Wage component of the iCERT system, including use of the support doc upload and director review request functions added on February 6, 2011.
Major Enhancement Features
- Improved Data Quality Checks: Strengthens data quality by providing additional real- time form validation (e-checks) to prevent (rather than just warn) customers of mandatory fields on the ETA Form 9141, Application for Prevailing Wage Determination that, when not completed, may result in a delay in processing the application. Customers will receive immediate notifications during the data entry and again, in summary form, at the final pre-submission stage of the process;
- Elimination of Separate Employer Wage Survey Submissions: Significantly reduces administrative time and costs by allowing customers to upload wage surveys (e.g., employer provided survey, CBA, SCA) or other supporting documentation to the NPWC as part of the ETA Form 9141 submission process in either Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, or text file formats for more efficient storage and retrieval by the NPWC in processing the application;
- Electronic Requests for NPWC Center Director Review: Streamlines the process to request review of a NPWC prevailing wage determination or redetermination by providing customers with the ability to initiate requests through their iCERT portal accounts. Consistent with regulatory requirements, customers will be able to enter a request for review online, write a narrative explanation, and upload supporting documentation in either Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, or text file formats for more efficient storage and retrieval by the NPWC Center Director; and
- Additional Customer E-mail Notifications: Improves transparency of NPWC decision making by providing customers with quick access to check the status of any pending requests for Center Director Review within their iCERT portal accounts, and delivering courtesy e-mail notifications as soon as a decision is reached to affirm or overturn the prevailing wage determination or redetermination.