Volume 8, Number 1, Winter-Spring 1999
Who Works on California Farms? Demographic and Employment Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey, DANR Publication 21583, by Howard Rosenberg; Anne Steirman and Susan Gabbard, of Aguirre International; and Richard Mines, U.S. Department of Labor, provides a broad look at the seasonal agricultural workforce. Based on data collected in the 1995-97 national survey from interviews in California by the Department of Labor, the report finds that the state's most typical farm worker is a 33-year-old, married, Mexican father earning less than $10,000 a year. The report also reveals the wide range around these typical characteristics, including workers' legal employability.
Published in December 1998 by the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the 22-page report is available for $5 plus 8.25% sales tax (California orders only) and $2 shipping. Send check or money order payable to UC Regents to Communication Services-Publications, 6701 San Pablo Ave., 2nd Floor, Oakland, CA 94608-1239. Phone: 800/994-8849 or 510/642-2431. Fax: 510/643-5470. Email inquiries: danrcs@ucdavis.edu.
Farm Labor Contractor: Safety and Health Guide, a free 65-page handbook for the prevention of ag injury and illness, was produced by the Cal/OSHA consultation service with the help of farm labor contractors, agricultural safety professionals, educators and UC Cooperative Extension. The user-friendly guide for growers and other ag employers, as well as FLCs, provides information on injury and illness prevention programs, worker training, and employers' legal obligations, and includes fact sheets and checklists, a reference list of free services, and photos. A Spanish version is also in production. For a free copy, phone 800/963-9424, fax 916/574-2532, or email Elizabeth Manzo, Cal/OSHA Engineer, at emanzo@hq.dir.ca.gov, or write to Manager, Consultation Education and Training Unit 2211 Park Towne Circle, Suite 4, Sacramento, CA 95825. More than 10 copies can be obtained by written request explaining the reason.
Cal/OSHA Safety Standards online. Among the useful resources on the California Department of Industrial Relations website (http://www.dir.ca.gov) is a search engine and clickable table of contents providing online access to workplace safety and health rules under Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations. Users may search the regulations either by section number or by key words. The Title 8 Cal/OSHA search engine is also accessible from the "California Law & Regs" page on the APMP website (http://are.berkeley.edu/APMP).
Workers' Compensation Reforms, Fifth Anniversary Report, 1993 -- 1998 includes a history of the reform effort as well as charts and statistics. According to the report, total premium costs to California employers dropped from a high of $9 billion in 1993 to about $6 billion in 1997. The average cost of workers' compensation insurance premiums decreased from $4.43 per $100 of payroll in 1993 to $2.32 per $100 in 1997. The weekly maximum benefit for injured workers increased by about 45 percent. The report is accessible, in PDF format, through a link to "Workers' Compensation" on the DIR website (see item above).
Worth noting on the APMP website. Public Issues in Ag Labor. The new page, listed among major links on the APMP site guide (left-side frame of http://are.berkeley.edu/APMP), contains a link to a clickable list of news reports describing activity of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in enforcing employment eligibility requirements. Other links on the page go to information on agricultural work visa programs, invalid Social Security numbers in FICA filings, actions under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and activity under the Agricultural Labor Relations Act.
Tools for Management Practice. This section, accessible from the site guide, has links to: (1) sample job descriptions, including ag job information from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and a newly compiled group of generic job descriptions; (2) a clickable list of online Government Forms and Posters; and (3) a growing list of Other Tools, such as a sample contract between grower and FLC, the database of FLCs licensed by the California Dept. of Industrial Relations, and a sample written injury and illness protection program.
Expanded Discussion Groups page. More links have been added to forums of interest to practitioners and observers of personnel management, as well as a link to our new page of Selected Posts from those networks. The posts, chosen for their reference value and relevance to agricultural employment, can be reached from the Discussion Groups page or directly from the APMP Site Guide.
Downloadable Labor Management in Ag: Cultivating Personnel Productivity. Gregory Billikopf is now offering his 170-page book in an updated version that can be downloaded at no charge from his website (http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/ucce50/7book.htm) onto a hard drive or floppy disk. Previously available in print and website versions, the book includes information on conflict management, employee selection, performance appraisal, incentive pay, interpersonal relations, employee discipline. Also, the latest, slightly revised version of his Instructor's' Manual is now available in PDF format on his website.
Bi-monthly newsletter. Migrant Health Newsline is available (by postal mail) at no charge from the National Center for Farmworker Health. Send a request to NCFH, 1515 Capital of Texas Hwy. South., Austin TX, or phone 512/328-7682, fax 512/328-8559, or email Shanda Sansing at sansing@ncfh.org.
Video for Employers. Handling Your Appeal Before the California OSHA Appeals Board explains the appeal process and shows a simulation of both a telephonic prehearing conference and an evidentiary hearing before an administrative law judge. The video was produced by the Board with the University of Southern California Schools of Law and Cinema-Television. Copies are available for $6.00 (by check payable to the Department of Industrial Relations) from the OSHA Appeals Board, 1300 I Street, Suite 940, Sacramento, CA 95814. An updated, free copy of the Appeal Information booklet also can be obtained from the Board's Sacramento office (phone 916/322-5080).
Annual pesticide illness report for 1996. The Department of Pesticide Regulation's recently released annual report shows 1,580 potential or confirmed cases of pesticide illness in 1996, about 44 percent of which were linked to agricultural settings. According to an accompanying table of numbers of illness cases by type and county, a single drift incident in Kern County accounted for 243 of the 696 illnesses in agriculture. The report is available from DPR's Worker Health and Safety Branch, 1020 N Street, Room 200, Sacramento 95814, phone 916/445-4222, or can be downloaded from the publications section of DPR's website http://www.cdpr.ca.gov.
Research report. The Chicano/Latino Policy Project (CLPP) has published Workplace Health-and-Safety Violations in Agriculture: Epidemiology and Implications for Education and Enforcement Policy, by Stephen A. McCurdy, Don Villarejo, and Maria Stoecklin. The 80-page report describes results and policy implications of a project funded by the University of California Latina/Latino Policy Research Program, which is administered by the California Policy Research Center (formerly the California Policy Seminar), comparing characteristics of agricultural operations that had received notices of violation through the Targeted Industries Partnership Program with those that had not. A summary of the report is on the website http://www.ucop.edu/cprc/mccurdy.html or can be obtained by phoning 510/643-9328. The full report can be purchased for $5.50 from the CLPP; phone 510/642-6903.