Nursery Worker

Job description

Crops/Commodities:
Bedding plants (annuals, perennials).
This job requires a minimum of one month of prior agricultural experience working in a nursery handling both manual and machine tasks associated with nursery production and harvest activities. Applicants must be able to furnish verbal or written statement establishing relevant prior work experience.

Plants, cultivates and maintains in condition for shipping and resale to customers nursery stock. Pots seedlings, prunes, spaces, irrigates and culls plants to ensure availability of marketable products. Packs, labels, pulls and stores plants according to variety. Loads/unloads truck and wagons and carts. Workers will perform work including but not limited to planting, transplanting, watering in nurseries and seasonal holding houses. Count and inventory plants. Propagate plants from cuttings. Remove plastic from seasonal holding houses in spring and cover seasonal holding houses with plastic in fall. Assist with building seasonal holding houses. Fill, lift and carry various size pots with soil and plants weighing as much as 60 pounds. Plants must be handled carefully so that minimal leaves, limbs and roots are broken during transplanting process. Performs any other duties involved in the maintenance of plant materials and nursery stock and maintenance of holding yards and shipping areas. Workers may be required to spray stock with herbicides, pesticides and fungicides, if certified.

Work is to be done for long periods of time. Work requires repetitive movements and extensive walking. Workers are expected to perform duties including boxing, weighing and loading of product. Workers will assist in loading trucks with packaged product weighing up to and including 60 pounds and lifting to a height of 5 feet for long periods of time. Workers should be physically able to do the work required with or without reasonable accommodations. Work week is Monday through Saturday; Sunday work will be offered but not required. Must be able to lift/carry 60 lbs, must be able to work in crouching/bending position for extended periods of times when installing irrigation hoses.

Employer-paid post-hire drug testing is required at random, upon reasonable suspicion of use and after a worker has an accident at work.

Work may also include mechanized work using tractors. Workers will be expected to be able to operate tractors with or without direction.

Persons seeking employment in this position must be available for the entire period requested by the employer. Applicants must be able to furnish verbal or written statement establishing relevant prior work experience. Successful applicants will be subject to a trial period of up to five days during which their performance of required tasks will be evaluated. If the performance during the trial period is not acceptable to the employer the worker‘s employment will be terminated.

Employer may request, but not require, workers to work more than the stated daily hours and/or on a worker's Sabbath or federal holidays. Worker must report to work at designated time and place each day. Daily or weekly work schedule may vary due to weather, sunlight, temperature, crop conditions, and other factors. Employer will notify workers of any change to start time. Workers will have an unpaid lunch break.

TERMINATION. All workers will be subject to a five-day trial period, during which the employer will evaluate workers' performance of required tasks. Employer reserves the right to terminate a worker at the conclusion of the trial period if the worker's performance fails to satisfy the employer's reasonable expectations, or is otherwise unacceptable.

Special Requirements

This job requires a minimum of one month of prior agricultural experience working in a nursery handling both manual and machine tasks associated with nursery production and harvest activities. Applicants must be able to furnish verbal or written statement establishing relevant prior work experience. Work week is Monday through Saturday; Sunday work will be offered but not required. Must be able to lift/carry 60 lbs. Employer-paid post-hire drug testing is required at random, upon reasonable suspicion of use and after a worker has an accident at work.