Farmworker/laborer

Job description

FARM LABORER: Worker will be required to use employer provided hoe or knife to remove weeds around plants as directed by supervisor. Worker will be careful not to damage the surrounding plants. Worker will conduct field clean-up which includes picking up rocks, brush, and sticks. Worker will be required to use employer provided saw or back hoe to trim farm trees and brush. Worker will load brush, sticks and rocks on wagons to remove from growing area as instructed by supervisor. Worker will use power and hand saws, crow bars, hammers, air nailer to remove broken parts from bins and pallets and replace them with good pieces. Worker will be required to lift up to 70 pounds.

Field Planting/Seeding: Worker will carefully hand transplant plants with employer-provided hand-shovel. Plants shall be handled with care as not to break, damage or bruise the plant, while removing it from the tray and planting plant in the center of the predetermined hole. The plant shall be placed into the ground, so the root structure is entirely coved with ground soil. Plants will be centered in the hole as to not touch the sides of the plastic to prevent burning of the plant.

Plants may be planted mechanically with a planter and the worker will ride the machine and place plants in the drops as the machine moves along the row.

Seeds may be planted by hand. Seeds will be placed into the predetermined hole in the row and placed no deeper than a half inch into the ground and covered with ground soil as instructed by supervisor.

Irrigation: Worker will assemble, disassemble and repair irrigation equipment with employer provided wrenches as instructed. Worker will be required to stoop, bend and use a ladder as directed by supervisor. Worker will be required to lift up to 60 pounds.

Thinning: Thinning is a manual process used to control the size and quality of crops. Worker identifies and removes misshapen, damaged and/or other not quality crop as directed by Employer.

Baling: Worker will use tractor and machine to make bales of hay and straw in the field. Workers will stack bales by hand on wagon. Once full, wagon will be taken to barn where workers will stack the bales on the floor. Later workers will take the bales out of the barn and stack onto pallets or in trucks. Workers will be required to lift up to 70 pounds.

Greenhouse Activities: Worker will mix soil for filling flats and fill flats on flat filler machine and stack as directed. Worker will unstack soil trays, feed full trays through seeder, cover with soil, level soil, and then restack on pallet. Worker will then transport seeded trays into greenhouse and place on to table/ground/racks in an orderly manner in accordance with supervisor instructions. Extra care must be taken not to disturb, disrupt or spill the planted seeds from the plastic tray cells during transport from seeder to table/ground/racks. Worker will be required to transplant from plug trays into cell trays by removing plants at root base and transferring to opposite hand as directed by supervisor. Transplanting is done using a pinched-finger style. Worker will insert index finger in the middle of the cell and then insert 1 plant in a continuous motion. After transplanting, worker will be required to lay out flats and place on to bed/ground/racks in an orderly manner in accordance with supervisor instructions. Worker will load flats of plants, according to same-lot of plants onto trailers or plant racks to be transported to field to be planted as instructed by supervisor. Worker will be required to differentiate and keep separate different varieties of plants onto trailers or plant racks. Worker will also work in and around greenhouses doing general greenhouse work, and monitoring plants according to supervisors instructions.

Pay will be hourly.

Special Requirements

2 verifiable months commercial vegetable or fruit hand harvest experience required. Applicants must furnish job references from employers of the last 5 years establishing acceptable prior experience.

Season Commitment: Job offered requires worker be available for and worker agrees to work every day that work is available for entire employment period.

Worker must be able to perform job description duties in safe manner consistent with established safety procedures.

Field work begins at assigned time shortly after daylight. Work may be scheduled during moderate rain, in high humidity, when trees are wet with dew/rain, and in temperatures as low as 15 degrees F and up to 105 degrees F. Worker should have suitable clothing for variable weather conditions.

Drug testing not utilized as pre-employment tool. See work rule #4 for more information regarding post-employment drug testing