Farmworkers And Laborers

Job description

The job requires a minimum of three months of experience in tasks associated with farm experience. The Job requires extensive standing and walking. Workers are frequently required to use their hands and arms to handle, feel, reach, climb, or balance. Workers are occasionally required to stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl under trellis wires. Workers must be able to lift/carry up to 60 lbs. throughout the course of the day.

Apple Harvest: According to the established company procedures based on the end-use (spot picking for fresh, small percentage of culls for processing), maintaining high quality is essential to harvesting different varieties of apples. To ensure that standards are met, workers must be able to differentiate between colors accurately in order to perform color specific picking. Workers must also be able to carry and pick from a 16-foot ladder and carry up to 60 pounds.

Thinning: Following the supervisor’s instructions, the worker will prune and thin apple trees when necessary to ensure proper growth of fruit. When ripened workers will remove fruit from the trees and place it in a plastic container suspended by a harness worn by the worker. 'When full, the worker will carry the container to the designated area, unhook the full container, empty the container gently to avoid bruising, and repeat the process.

Quality Checker: Will ensure horticultural procedures are practiced to safeguard the growth of quality crops.

Shovel Work: Workers will use a shovel to bank soil around loose tree trunks.

Tree Training: Workers may be requested to perform tree training duties, including but not limited to the following activities: hoeing, tree painting, weed mat application, and tree tying, which includes tying limbs to trellises and tying limbs together. Additional tree training duties could include support stringing, bamboo supporting, and scoring. If the supervisor determined that any other tying activities are required, the supervisor will communicate this to all workers.

Supervisors will explain and demonstrate picking requirements to all workers at the start of the season and as needed thereafter to ensure quality standards. Workers must take care when picking to ensure there is no damage to the fruit, such as bruising. Workers are required to pick and dump fruit without stem pulls, punctures, bruising, or other damage which diminishes quality. Workers will receive a written disciplinary note if the supervisor observes bruised, damaged, or cull fruit on the pick quality report. Upon third notice, a worker's employment may be terminated. A worker may receive a written disciplinary notice when a bin is inspected and a significant number of culls, bruised, or damaged fruit are found by the supervisor. Workers must wear a picking bag around the shoulder and not around the waist, unless approved by the supervisor, there may not be any modification of picking bags. For example, there may be no lengthening of picking bags.

Orchard Clean-up: In addition to the above activities, workers may be required to perform miscellaneous grove clean-up work such as repair and/or replace irrigation equipment, removal of debris, and other general grove clean-up work as required. The worker will assist with cleaning the orchard by clearing the brush and picking up rocks up to 60lbs. Farm clean-up tasks will include picking up garbage around the orchard, removing old strings and wires, trellis wires, and other hand tasks. Workers performing grove clean-up work will be paid the adverse effect wage rate, the prevailing rate, or the minimum wage rate, whichever is higher.

Other Job Specifications Include: Worker cares for young non-producing fruit trees including weeding, hoeing, trunk painting, hand fertilizing, and growth selection by hand and clipping. Workers will also prop and tie trees and limbs.

Special Requirements

The employer may conduct a drug test post-hire at the employers expense upon reasonable suspicion after a worker has been involved in an accident while working. Workers must have three (3) months in tasks associated with farm experience. Applicants must be able to furnish job references establishing acceptable prior experience or a notarized statement describing the specific prior experience.