State and Federal Laws that Apply to Farm Labor
This section is intended to provide accurate and timely information on some, but not all the issues regarding farm labor. As time passes, some of this information may no longer be accurate, and the reader is cautioned to be aware of that. The material is not intended to provide legal, accounting, or other professional advice and should not be relied upon as such or as a substitute for such advice. Growers who desire such advice should seek independent professional counsel before acting on any information contained in this section.
Migrant and Seasonal Worker Considerations
Pennsylvania Seasonal Farm Labor Act
Purpose
The Seasonal Farm Labor Act was passed by the
Pennsylvania legislature to improve the conditions
of seasonal farm workers. The act establishes
standards for wages, hours, conditions of work,
housing, food facilities, fire protection, and
safety. In addition, it establishes a permit requirement
to operate and occupy seasonal farm labor camps,
and lists prohibited practices by farm labor contractors
and their agents.
Who must comply?
Farm labor contractors must comply with this act.
A "farm labor contractor" is any person who, for payment, wages, salary, fee, or other consideration, either for himself or on behalf of another person, recruits, solicits, hires, furnishes, or transports five or more seasonal farm workers (excluding members of his immediate family) in any calendar year for employment in agriculture.
In the case of a partnership, firm, association, corporation, or organization that supplies seasonal farm workers solely for its own operation, the term "farm labor contractor" means the officer, official, supervisor, or employee most directly responsible for the activities mentioned above.
The term "farm labor contractor" does not include:
- an individual farmer who hires seasonal workers only for his or her own operation. However, if an employee of an individual farmer engages in these activities, that employee is considered a "farm labor contractor."
- a person who arranges for the employment of seasonal farm workers from another nation and the employment is subject to an agreement between the United States and the foreign nation, or an agreement provided by an instrumentality of the foreign nation.
- those licensed under the employment agency law.
- nonprofit charitable organizations or educational institutions.
- Farm labor employers. "Farm labor employer" includes every individual, firm, partnership, association, trust, corporation, receiver, or any person or group of persons acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee, employing or permitting to work any seasonal farm worker in the Commonwealth, and including every farmer, grower, nursery operator, or landowner who employs, or on whose premises or in whose interest is employed, any seasonal farm worker.
- A "seasonal farm worker" is any individual employed on a seasonal or temporary basis to perform agricultural labor in the planting, processing, storing, or transporting of agricultural commodities or farm products. In addition, the statute covers any person who lives in quarters owned, leased, or operated by an employer or a farm labor contractor and occupied by four or more unrelated persons, regardless of whether they work on a seasonal or temporary basis. The statute specifically excludes from its coverage persons who commute from their permanent residence to the work site in their own transportation or that provided by someone other than the employer or a farm labor contractor.
PA Department of Labor and Industry
Bureau of Labor Standards Seasonal Farm Labor Section
1305 Labor and Industry Building
Harrisburg, PA 17120
(717) 787-1930
Federal Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act (MSPA)
The MSPA is intended to supplement state law. Compliance with it does not excuse any person from complying with appropriate state law and regulation.
Who must comply?
- Agricultural employers. An "agricultural employer" is any person who owns or operates a farm, ranch, processing establishment, cannery, gin, packing shed, or nursery, or who produces or conditions seed, and who either recruits, hires, employs, furnishes, or transports any migrant or seasonal agricultural worker.
- Farm labor contractors. A "farm labor contractor" is any person, other than an agricultural employer, an agricultural association, or an employee of an agricultural employer or agricultural association, who, for money or other valuable consideration, performs any farm labor contracting activity, such as recruiting, soliciting, hiring, employing, furnishing, or transporting any migrant or seasonal agricultural worker.
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NOTE: Agricultural employers and farm labor contractors
may be jointly responsible for the requirements
of this act. In other words, if the farm labor
contractor does not comply, the agricultural employer
is responsible, regardless of whether the farm
labor contractor qualifies as an independent contractor.
The factors to be considered in determining whether an employer should be jointly responsible with the farm labor contractor are:
1. whether the agricultural employer has the power, either alone or through control of the farm labor contractor, to direct, control, or supervise the worker(s) or the work performed.
2. whether the agricultural employer has the power, either alone or in addition to another employer, directly or indirectly, to hire or fire, modify the employment conditions, or determine the pay rates or the methods of wage payment for the worker(s).
3. the degree of permanency and duration of the relationship of the parties, in the context of the agricultural activity at issue.
4. the extent to which the services rendered by the worker(s) are repetitive, rote tasks requiring skills acquired with relatively little training.
5. whether the activities performed by the worker(s) are an integral part of the overall business operation of the agricultural employer.
6. whether the work is performed on the agricultural employer's premises, rather than on the premises owned or controlled by another business entity.
7. whether the agricultural employer undertakes responsibilities in relation to the worker(s) which are commonly performed by employers, such as preparing and/or making payroll records, preparing and/or issuing pay checks, paying FICA taxes, providing workers' compensation insurance, providing field sanitation facilities, housing or transportation, or providing tools and equipment or materials required for the job (taking into account the amount of investment.
A "migrant agricultural worker" is an individual employed in agriculture on a seasonal or other temporary basis, and who is required to be absent overnight from his or her permanent place of residence. NOTE: This term does not include members of the immediate family of a farm labor contractor or an agricultural employer, or temporary nonimmigrant H-2a alien workers.
A "seasonal agricultural worker" is an individual employed in agriculture on a seasonal or temporary basis and who is not required to be absent overnight from his or her permanent place of residence when employed on a farm or ranch in performing field work related to planting, cultivating, or harvesting operations or when employed in canning, packing, ginning, seed conditioning, or related research, or processing operations, and who is transported or caused to be transported to or from the place of employment by means of a day-haul operation (pick-up and return on the same day). NOTE: This term does not include any migrant agricultural worker; any immediate family member of an agricultural employer or farm labor contractor; or temporary nonimmigrant agricultural H-2a alien workers.
Who is exempt?
- Family businesses. The act is not applicable to an individual who engages in farm labor contracting activities on behalf of a farm owned or operated by that person or an immediate family member, if the activities are performed only for such operation and exclusively by such individual or an immediate family member.
- Small businesses. The act is not applicable to an employer who employs agricultural labor less than 500 worker-days in each calendar quarter of the preceding calendar year. This is the same standard as the Fair Labor Standards Act exemption from federal minimum wage requirements.
- A person whose labor-contracting activities are conducted within a 25-mile radius of the person's permanent residence and for not more than 13 weeks per year.
- Common carriers whose only connection with agriculture is the transport of migrant or seasonal agricultural workers.
- Nonprofit charitable organizations and public and private educational institutions.
- Custom combining, hay-harvesting, or sheep-shearing operations.
- Custom poultry-harvesting, breeding, debeaking, desexing, or health-service operations.
- Some students serving apprenticeships and some employees of seed and tobacco producers.
- Farm labor contractors must have a certificate of registration.
- Agricultural employers must confirm that the farm labor contractor is registered.
- Farm labor contractors, agricultural employers, and agricultural associations that recruit migrant and/or seasonal agricultural workers must disclose the following information to such workers:
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1. place of employment;
2. wage rates to be paid;
3. crops and kinds of work activity on which worker may be employed
4. period of employment;
5. transportation, housing, and other employee benefits to be provided, and cost, if any;
6. existence of any strike or other work stoppage, slowdown, or other work interruption at the place of employment;
7. any arrangement with the owner or agent of an establishment under which the contractor, employer, or association is to receive a commission or any other benefit resulting from sales to the workers; and
8. whether state workers' compensation insurance is provided, and, if so:
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(a) the name of the state workers' compensation
insurance carrier;
(b) the name of the policyholder of such insurance;
(c) the name and the telephone number of each person who must be notified of an injury or death; and
(d) the time period within which such notice must be given.
- Farm labor contractors, agricultural employers, and agricultural associations that recruit migrant agricultural workers must post the above information in English, Spanish, or another language common to the workers.
- Those who own or control facilities used to house migrant workers are responsible for having these facilities meet federal and state safety and health standards. For further details, see material on Migrant Labor Housing (below).
- Each farm labor contractor, agricultural employer, or agricultural association that recruits migrant agricultural workers must maintain for 3 years those records dealing with:
1. the basis for wages paid;
2. piece work units earned;
3. sums withheld and purpose of withholding;
4. number of hours worked;
5. total pay period earnings; and
6. net pay.
- When using any vehicle to provide transportation, each farm labor contractor, agricultural employer, and agricultural association that recruits migrant workers must ensure:
1. that the vehicle conforms to federal and
state safety standards;
2. that drivers are validly licensed; and
3. that an insurance policy or liability bond
in the minimum amount of $100,000 per seat in
the vehicle (the total amount required is not
more than $5,000,000) is in force to cover property
damage and personal injury.
Use of machinery and equipment while actually engaged in planting, harvesting, etc. is exempt from this requirement.
NOTE: The required level of insurance is that required of a common carrier under federal law, but if a contractor, employer, or association maintains workers' compensation coverage for its workers and this coverage includes transporting workers, then no additional insurance is necessary and the workers' compensation policy may meet the insurance requirement. This decision requires a thorough review of the existing policy with an insurance adviser.
| Wage and Hour Division U.S. Custom House Room 402 Second and Chestnut Streets Philadelphia, PA 19106 Phone: (215) 597-4950 |
Wage and Hour Division Federal Building, Room 313 1000 Liberty Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Phone: (412) 395-4996 |
Wage and Hour Division Stegmaier Building, Suite 373M N. Wilkes-Barre Boulevard Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702 (717) 826-6316 |
Migrant Labor Housing — Federal Regulations
Who must comply?
Anyone who supplies housing to migrant workers
is subject to housing standards. There are certain
exemptions for small employers and camp operators
who provide the same housing to the general public
on a commercial basis.
What do the regulations require?
1. Before migrant labor housing can be occupied, a state or local health authority or other appropriate agency must certify that the facility meets all applicable safety and health standards, including federal and state regulations. A copy of the certification must be posted at the site. Certification prior to occupancy will not prevent the housing provider from being assessed penalties for violations that occur after occupancy has begun.
2. Migrant labor housing owned by growers and crew leaders subject to the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act (see previous section) must be registered, inspected, and approved by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor. Specific requirements exist for:
- housing sites
- shelter and housing
- water supply
- toilet facilities
- sewage disposal
- laundry, hand washing, and bathing facilities
- electrical lighting
- refuse and garbage disposal
- cooling and eating facilities
- screening, insect, and rodent control
- fire safety and first-aid facilities
- reporting of communicable diseases
These regulations can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations, Volume 20, Parts 653 and 654.
4. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has the authority to inspect any farm labor housing facility in response to a complaint, a report of an injury or accident, or on a random basis. No registration is required under OSHA regulations.
Penalties
Employers and migrant farm labor camp owners are
subject to fines if found in violation of housing
standards. In certain cases, violations may cause
the inspecting agency to close the camp and revoke
the employer's certification.
For more information contact any regional office of the U.S. Department of Labor:
| Wage and Hour Division U.S. Custom House Room 402 Second and Chestnut Streets Philadelphia, PA 19106 Phone: (215) 597-4950 |
Wage and Hour Division Federal Building, Room 313 1000 Liberty Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Phone: (412) 395-4996 |
Wage and Hour Division Stegmaier Building, Suite 373M N. Wilkes-Barre Boulevard Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702 Phone: (717) 826-6316 |
| USDOL-OSHA U.S. Custom House Room 242 Second and Chestnut Streets Philadelphia, PA 19106 Phone: (215) 597-4955 |
USDOL-OSHA Federal Building, Room 1428 1000 Liberty Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15222-4101 Phone: (412) 395-4903 |
USDOL-OSHA 49 North Progress Avenue Harrisburg, PA 17109 Phone: (717) 782-3905 |
| USDOL-OSHA Stegmaier Building, Suite 410 N. Wilkes-Barre Boulevard Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702 Phone: (717) 826-6538 |
Migrant Labor Housing — Pennsylvania Regulations
Purpose
Regulations set standards for permits, plans,
sites, and camp housing. Under housing requirements,
regulations cover:
- occupancy
- sleeping room contents
- cleanliness
- water supply
- plumbing
- toilet facilities
- sewage disposal
- laundry, hand-washing, and bathing facilities
- lighting and electrical
- refuse
- food service
- insect and rodent control
- first-aid and fire prevention
- exits and entrances
Who must comply?
All employers of migrant and seasonal farm labor
in Pennsylvania that provide living quarters for
four or more unrelated farm workers are subject
to the regulations. If an employee has been employed
for less than one year, the employee is presumed
to be a seasonal one, unless the employer can
prove otherwise.
What do the regulations require?
1. Plans for the construction, remodeling, or
alteration of farm labor camps must be approved
by the governing agency before such construction,
etc. may begin.
2. All seasonal farm labor camps must have a permit from the governing agency. A permit is valid for one year. Initial applications for new camps must be submitted 60 days prior to occupancy. Currently operating farm labor camps will receive a renewal application 60 days prior to the expiration of their current permit.
3. All camps must be ready for inspection by the governing agency at least 45 days prior to occupancy. Violations may cause the camp to be reinspected before a permit is issued. Continued noncompliance with regulations may cause the agency to levy fines or revoke the operating permit.
4. Upon receipt of a permit, the camp owner or operator must post the permit at a prominent location that is readily accessible.
For more information contact:
PA Department of Agriculture
Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services
2301 N. Cameron Street
Harrisburg, PA 17110-9408
(717) 787-4315
