Farmworkers And Laborers, Crop
Employer
131 Harris Ldg Rd
Edenton, NC 27932
United States
Job description
Watermelon Planting: Workers will grab a tray of watermelon plants; working down the rows worker will make a hole on the ground, insert the watermelon plant in the hole and cover the hole with dirt. Harvesting Watermelon by hand, the worker will walk down the watermelon field rows where the watermelon will be harvested. The worker will first cut the vine off the watermelon with a small knife and turn the watermelon over. The worker will bend over harvesting the ripe watermelon which can vary in weight from 20 to 60 lbs. from the ground and tossing the watermelon to the worker next to him and this worker will toss the watermelon to the next worker and so on, until the watermelon is then tossed to the person inside the bus who will place the watermelon on the floor. Packing: When the bus is full, it will be taken to the packing house where the workers will unload the watermelon and put it in a conveyor belt that will transport the watermelon into the packing house where it will be separated by size, labeled and packed.
Note: The packing house is located inside the Farm and more than 50% of the product processed is produced by the Fixed Site Employer.
Sweet Potatoes Plantation: Workers will select large sweet potato plant from the beds; they will cut the plant and place into a basket. Once the basket is full and tight the process will be done again. The worker must be able to complete three baskets every hour. Workers will then plant sweet potato by machine and by hand. When planting by machine the worker will repeatedly set a plant on the butterfly device that holds the plant. The plant end must stick out of the butterfly device at least 2-3 inches in order to be planted correctly. When done by hand the worker will walk down the field make a 3 inch hole in the ground, place the plant in the hole, and cover the hole firmly, and space each hole about 10 inches apart repeatedly throughout the daily shift.
Sweet potato Harvesting: The worker will pick the sweet potatoes up from the ground by class. There are 3 types of classes of sweet potato that require harvesting at once which are number 1’s (large potato), canner(medium small broken cracked unshaped potato’s), and seed (small potato’s). The worker must first select number 1’s placing them in a five gallon bucket, once the bucket is full, the worker will take the bucket to the truck and dump the sweet potatoes in the back of the truck. A small ticket will be given to you to keep and a total will be counted at the end of each day. The workers will then go back to the picking area and fill his bucket up with canner sweet potato. Once the bucket is full the worker will take the bucket to the truck and dump the bucket. The worker will go back to his picking area and fill his bucket up with seed sweet potato.
General Maintenance: Workers on physical work restrictions or when harvesting work is not available may be required to perform miscellaneous clean-up work on work site property, on structures utilized in the work site operation, and on housing for harvesting workers. Such clean-up activities include the sprouting, pruning, and painting of trees; debris, weed, and vine removal; irrigation repair; housing and structure cleaning and repair.
The worker in order to perform this kind of work must be able to work outside for at least 6 hours a day in all kinds of weather and be in possession of the requisite physical strength and endurance to repeat the picking process rapidly, the employer will provide the tools necessary to perform the described job duties without charge to the worker. The employer will charge the worker for reasonable costs related to the worker’s refusal or negligent failure to return the tools or due to such worker’s willful damage or destruction of the tools.
Special Requirements
This type of work, involves working conditions that require tremendous stamina, a high level of physical activity in cold or extremely hot conditions in direct sunlight and in adverse weather such as rain. The work requires a high level of physical conditioning. Due to the type of work involved, there is a Probationary Period of five (5) days beginning with the first day of employment, to show possession of the requisite physical strength and endurance to perform this type of work.