The US Department of Labor has changed the rules that made it easier for farmer to hire temporary workers to help harvest their crops.

A lawsuit from farm owners last year stopped the Labor Department from immediately suspending the Bush regulations and forced officials to go through a lengthier notice and comment period for making new rules.

The new rules, which take effect on March 15, would increase the average wage for temporary farm workers by about a dollar an hour. Farm owners must also post farm jobs on a new electronic job registry to make sure domestic workers get first dibs.

Labor Department officials say the changes protect some of the most vulnerable workers from abuses. Under the new rules, for example, state work force agencies must inspect the quality of temporary worker housing before an employer can gain approval to bring in foreign workers.

Growers had asked the Bush administration to ease hiring rules they said were so time-consuming that farmers sometimes had to let crops rot in the fields because they couldn’t find enough workers at harvest time. The new rules would retain some of the efforts to streamline processing times, but not likely enough to satisfy growers who have threatened further legal action.