General Harvester Worker

Job description

Workers will manually plant, cultivate, tie and stake, harvest, weed, prune raspberries and blueberries bushes using pruning shears and loppers. Workers may operate farming equipment to plant, and harvest raspberries and blueberries. Put up trellis for new fields (posts, wire, hooks), and remove for old fields post-harvest. Put wires up and down to train plants. Pack potted berry plants into Bins. Pull weeds and assist with irrigation tasks as assigned.
Drive raspberry and blueberry harvester. Help unload fruit onto flatbed trucks. Fill and stack flats on the back of harvester. Fill and stack lugs on the back of blueberry harvester. Sort out foreign material on harvester. Unload full flats from harvester onto flatbed trucks and reload harvester with empty flats. Clean, grease, and lube harvester. Transport fruit on flatbed truck to the harvest plant. Return to field with empty flats. Drive workers between employer provided housing and the employer's place of employment at no cost to the worker. Valid driver’s license required to operate farm’s vehicles.
Flat washing, lug stacking. Move full flat/lug pallets with a forklift or pallet jack. Remove pallet stickers. Scan stickers on pallets for traceability. Load flats/lug into the dumpers with the pneumatic hoist. Unstack drums onto pallets and install liners in the drums. Erect totes onto pallets and install corner posts and liners. Fill drums and totes to correct weight, close and seal with lid, ring, and zip tie. Use stretch wrap to ensure pallet stability. Operate/stock case erector and bag inserter, fill cases to correct weight and fold liners. Stack/palletize cases on to pallets. Move pallets from production floor into the freezer or loading dock. Inspect berries for defects and foreign material. Operate forklifts and pallet jacks to move product and packaging around including proper loading and unloading of trucks.
Remove trash, recycling, foreign material, and wood chips from production floor, clean fruit residue throughout the production facility. Ensure sort-out and rework products are collected and distributed to correct color-coded containers. Empty inspection line workers collection containers. Maintain floors clean of spills and debris. Remove cardboard and unused pallets from production room.
Cleans and sanitizes the entire production area. Remove cardboard and unused pallets from production room. Follows Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) to ensure product safety, including wearing Proper Protective Equipment (PPE). Maintain a clean and safe work are. Operate sweepers, scrubbers, pressure washers and other types of sanitation equipment. Basic disassembly and reassembly of equipment to clean and sanitize. Follow pre-operations procedure to inspect and verify equipment cleanliness. Mix and use chemicals related to cleaning and sanitizing. Maintain complete, accurate and legible records.

Driver: Worker may drive minibus over the road. Worker will pick up workers from housing site/pick up points and take them to an assigned work site and at the end of the day take them back to the housing site/pick up point. In order to drive a minibus, employee must possess a valid drivers license and must be able to pass physical exam. The employer will be responsible for the cost of the drivers license and physical exam (if any). Worker driving (H-2A as well as corresponding domestic workers), will be given the opportunity to obtain a drivers license on a voluntary as needed basis. The drivers license is not a pre-hire job requirement. No job applicant will be denied an employment opportunity due to a lack of a drivers license at the time of application and/or hiring. Further, no worker (H-2A or corresponding domestic worker) will be terminated for failure to obtain a drivers license.

All other duties assigned under will be those duties SOC Code 45-2092

Special Requirements

Work performed under the contract is exempt from federal overtime pay requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Workers are only eligible for overtime pay if required by state law. Effective January 1, 2023, overtime pay will apply at 1.5 times the
regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 48 hours in a workweek.

Worker must promptly confirm such authorization in writing. Workers may be subject to disciplinary action for failing to obtain employer's permission for a personal long-distance call or to repay the cost of such call within a reasonable time. Employer may charge worker reasonable repair costs for damage to housing beyond normal wear and tear, if worker is found to have been responsible for such damage. Employer may charge worker for reasonable cost of damages and/or replacement of tools and/or equipment if such damage is found to have been the result of worker's willful misconduct or gross negligence.