Job Duties:
Crops grown: Perennials, plants. Workers will perform a variety of manual and mechanized agricultural, nursery, and packing tasks. Field and grounds work includes mowing, cutting, and weeding fields; performing ditching, shoveling, hoeing, hauling, ground preparation, and other manual labor; and preparing fields and soil for planting. Workers will remove cull stock, debris, tree stumps, brush, ferns, vines, and other growth from planting areas using hand tools or equipment such as tractors, mattocks, brush hooks, and axes. Assistance with farm building and field maintenance and repairs, including fence repair, is required. Frequent bending, stooping, and kneeling are necessary. Workers will use hand tools including, but not limited to, hoes, shovels, shears, clippers, loppers, and saws, and will operate power and agricultural equipment including, but not limited to, tractors, planters, mowers, plows, sprayers, cultivators, power shears, chain saws, high lifts, forklifts, and skid loaders. Supervisors will demonstrate safe equipment operation to new workers. Thereafter, equipment must be operated safely, with or without direction, and workers will, as directed, assist with routine equipment maintenance. Planting, cultivation, and nursery operations include planting, cultivating, fertilizing, irrigating, and maintaining nursery stock and/or bedding plants; potting seedlings or liners by hand or with mechanical planters; propagating plants from cuttings; and performing general plant maintenance. Workers will prune, trim, space, transplant, and cull plants to ensure the availability of marketable products. Harvesting and plant preparation duties include harvesting crops according to specific quality and handling standards; preparing plants for digging by tying or wrapping as required; digging plants; performing drum lacing and quarter lacing; wrapping burlap or other coverings around root balls and securing them with twine and/or staples; and crimping wire baskets. Packing, production, and quality control work includes working on production and packing lines; grading, sizing, sorting, counting, and inventorying products and plants; bunching or bundling product pursuant to supervisor instructions; filling bins, trays, boxes, or other containers; leveling bins; and preparing products for shipment or storage. Workers will pack, label, tag, pull, palletize, and stack boxes or containers; perform quality control on inbound and outbound loads; and follow all quality control standards and production procedures. All products must be handled carefully to prevent damage. Material handling and sanitation duties include lifting, carrying, loading, and unloading products, plants, and supplies; using equipment such as forklifts, conveyor belts, and cooling or refrigeration units; and cleaning and sanitizing workstations and equipment. Workers must understand and follow nursery and crop quality control standards as outlined by the supervisor, must harvest crops according to specific standards, and must handle all products carefully at all times to prevent damage. The following definitions are provided to assist all workers with the employer's work standards. Work/Job Specification Definitions: a) Sloppy: not careful or neat: showing a lack of care, attention, or effort. b) bona fide: made with earnest intent c) earnest: serious in intention, purpose, or effort: d) sustained: continuing for an extended period or without interruption. e) endurance: the ability or strength to continue or last, especially despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions. f) efficiently: performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort. g) consistently: Same way over a long period of time.
Special Requirements:
Two months experience required in agricultural equipment operation. Must be able to lift/carry 50 lbs. Workers are not permitted to be under the influence of intoxicants of any kind during working hours. Drug testing conducted uniformly for all employees, both foreign and domestic, after an initial job offer has been extended and accepted by the new hire. Tests are conducted after the initial employment offer has been extended and accepted. Drug test not required for prospective applicants prior to hiring decision. Workers testing positive will be immediately terminated and paid for all hours worked between the first date of employment and the date of termination, if any. In the case of a non-local or foreign worker who is terminated for failure to pass a drug test, the employer will arrange least-cost transportation to the workers place of recruitment, at the workers expense.