Farmworkers & Laborers

Job description

Berry Pickers: Hand-harvest blueberries and blackberries. Perform manual labor on a mechanical blueberry harvester, pack berries, and hoeing. Grade, sort, or classify berries by size, weight, color, or condition. Job duties include planting, pruning, picking, field cleaning, and other activities necessary to establish, grow, and produce berries. Cultivate and harvest multiple vegetable crops, flue-cured tobacco, and sweet potato. Hand-harvest melons. Pull weeds/chop: Workers will walk along rows as specified by employer and remove weeds and grass from fields by hand or using a hoe. Load and unload berries, vegetables, flue-cured tobacco, and sweet potato. Prolonged walking, standing, bending, stooping and reaching. Job is outdoors and continues in all types of weather. The use or possession or being under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol during working time is prohibited. Workers may be requested to submit to random drug or alcohol tests at no cost to the worker. Failure to comply with the request or testing positive may result in immediate termination. All testing will occur post-hire and is not a part of the interview process. Negative result may be required post-hire and before commencing work. Must be able to lift 75 lbs. to shoulder height repetitively throughout the workday and able to lift and carry 75 lbs. in field. Must not hinder another worker?s productivity. Use of personal cell phone or other personal electronic device during working hours strictly prohibited except for work-related calls or emergencies and violation may result in immediate termination. Though not a hiring requirement, if a worker drives a company vehicle during the period of employment then at the time of operating the company vehicle the driver must possess a valid driver?s license issued by a U.S. state or foreign equivalent and operate the company vehicle in accordance with the license restrictions and vehicle classifications applicable to that license. Requires one month verifiable prior farmworker experience in the crop activities listed. Must commit to entire anticipated period of employment.

Multiple vegetable crops: Workers will plant, cultivate, and harvest vegetables. Workers may be required to remove weeds from plants using either a hoe, or by hand. Workers will bend and stoop to pick vegetables according to size, color, shape and degree of maturity and place into field containers. Workers may carry full container weighing approximately 60 lbs. and empty into field bin or load onto trailer. May be required to pull and discard culls as directed by supervisor. Pickers will take care not to bruise or scar produce. Pre-harvest activities may include staking, tying, transplanting and pruning. Workers will stand on feet for long periods of time. Workers are required to work in fields when plats are wet with dew or rain. Temperatures is fields during working hours can range from 40 degrees F to over 100 degrees F.

Tobacco: Harvest workers will move into a row of mature tobacco plants. Each row may be as long as 1500 feet. The tobacco plant may be from 4 to 6 feet tall and spaced about 20 inches apart in each row. Starting at the bottom of the plant, the worker will bend over at the waist and pick the bottom two or three leaves from each plant. Staying bent over, the worker will move down the row of mature tobacco repeating the above-process. (The bottom leaves may be as low as two inches from the ground.) The worker will place the picked leaves under his arm. Once the worker has gathered an armload of leaves, he will carry it to a field sled. The leaves must be laid neatly onto the field sled. The worker then will return to the row and repeat the process. All workers must be able to distinguish ripe tobacco by observing the color of the leaves. Care must be exercised to prevent breaking of the plants. Workers must be able to move quickly along the rows and move in unison with the field

Special Requirements

Prolonged walking, standing, bending, stooping, and reaching. Job is outdoors and continues in all types of weather. Workers may be requested to submit to random drug or alcohol tests at no cost to the worker. Failure to comply with the request or testing positive may result in immediate termination. All testing will occur post-hire and is not a part of the interview process. Negative result may be required post-hire and before commencing work. Must be able to lift 75 lbs. to shoulder height repetitively throughout the workday and able to lift and carry 75 lbs. in field. Must not hinder another workers productivity. Use of personal cell phone or other personal electronic device during working hours strictly prohibited except for work-related calls or emergencies and violation may result in immediate termination. Requires one month verifiable prior work experience in the crop activities listed. Must commit to work the entire contract period.