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OSHA And Wage And Hour Inspections Increased In 2021
As we discussed a few months ago, inspections from the U.S. Department of Labor were expected to increase during this past ginning season, and it has certainly come to pass. On the Wage and Hour side, there has been a significant increase in the number of inspections in Texas, as well as in the Southeast.
From what we can tell, the emphasis of the Wage and Hour inspections has not changed significantly. They are looking at daily and weekly overtime calculations for H-2A and non-H-2A employees alike. It is important to be sure your payroll folks are very familiar with the overtime rules and how they work. The most common problems we see in this area deal with the proper payment of daily overtime during the 48-hour overtime weeks. If you are experiencing longer ginning seasons, it is important to keep track of how many 48-hour weeks you have used. The limit is 14 weeks each year.
We have also seen continuing problems with having the proper information on pay stubs. The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act has specific requirements for the information that must be shown on each pay stub. The two items that seem to give gins the most problems are the employer address and Employer Identification Number. Some of the common payroll programs available to small businesses have a hard time displaying these two items on the paystub.
You can get them included, but it may take a few phone calls with the software help desk. It is important to understand that they are required. If your paystubs do not currently include this information, it would be a good idea to get this issue corrected before you see an inspector. You also need to be sure the last four digits of the employee Social Security number is on each pay stub. This is generally less of a problem for most payroll programs, but worth double checking on your payroll.
OSHA In-Person Inspections
We are seeing more in-person inspections by Occupational Safety and Health Administration this year, after a few years of mostly virtual inspections. As with Wage and Hour inspections, the subject of the inspections has not really changed.
Almost all our inspections are in response to an accident. Make sure you have all the proper safety policies in place, and that you train all your workers in these policies. Be sure to document every training session, and have each worker sign an attendance sheet for each training session. This gets harder to do as the ginning season drags out and as you have to replace workers in the middle of the season.
If you do get inspected, these types of documents are critical to your ability to show that each and every worker is properly trained. Your ginners association has a full set of policies and training materials available for their members. Be sure you are using these documents in your training e orts.
COVID Emergency Temporary Standard
COVID continues to be a major workplace issue. The CDC has released new recommendations that can be found at https://bit.ly/3GKE6t9. They have shortened the quarantine period to five days, and in some cases exposed workers do not have to quarantine. While the quarantine time has been shortened, they have also complicated the guidelines. They now have di erent recommendations depending on whether you are vaccinated, boosted or neither. If you have not checked these recommendations in a few months, it would be good to refamiliarize yourself with these guidelines.
As I write this, the OSHA COVID Emergency Temporary Standard is in place but being reviewed by the Supreme Court. The ETS currently a ects employers with more than 100 workers, so most cotton gins will not be a ected by the standard. If you do have over 100 workers, the standard is currently in place, but stay tuned for changes. If this rule goes forward, we believe implementation will be extremely di icult. The two biggest issues will be workers who do not want to be vaccinated and a likely shortage of testing materials for unvaccinated workers. In addition, the logistics of tracking and reporting will be a significant challenge.
Regardless of whether the Supreme Court issues a stay to the rule, we probably will be dealing with a proposed permanent OSHA standard for COVID soon. This work is already beginning, and the main thing we will be watching for is the final threshold for employees. If OSHA proposes lowering the employee threshold, this could be a major problem for small employers.
The Supreme Court ruling will probably have a significant e ect on the final standard in addition to the ETS. The e ect on the final standard will depend on the substance of the Supreme Court ruling. If, for example, the Supreme Court rules that OSHA has over-stepped its authority by regulating COVID in the workplace, that could be a major setback for the ETS and any final rule. If they merely rule that the stay must remain in place while the lower courts look at the ETS, then that will stop the ETS, but the e ect on the final rule may be minimal.
As expected, the DOL continues to increase enforcement and develop additional new rules. As a ginners’ association, we are keeping a close eye on these and other rules as they make their way through the process. We will keep you all informed as things change.
J. Kelley Green, TCGA director of technical services, contributed this article. Contact him at kelley@tcga.org.
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Green Peaches
There it is, the old home place. Sitting at a curve of the dirt road up on the crest of the hill, waiting to catch the summer breeze before air conditioning was even thought about. Oh, what stories it could tell if it could talk! The fourth generation now works the field that comes right up to the back porch. Going up and down those rows, you have plenty of time to think of stories told about times gone by. This one happened to my husband Fred, as a boy….
Grandpa and Grandma were the babysitters of choice growing up. Fred and his sister, Sandra, were not quite old enough to work in the field. While their parents and older brother were working, they spent their days at Grandpa’s house.
Today, Grandpa’s brother had come for a rare visit. The old-timers sat on the front porch, trying to catch a breeze, rocking and swapping stories. It was early summer, a great day to be alive!
Fred and Sandra decided to go play behind the house, over by the peach tree. Grandpa was especially fond of his peaches. He had repeatedly warned the grandkids to leave the green peaches alone so they can get ripe. Besides fighting birds and bugs and blight, he had to fight pesky grandchildren for his lovely peaches.
But now, with Grandpa busy talking to Uncle Will on the front porch, this would be the perfect time to sneak a peach. After all, kids like peaches, too. And who cares if they’re still a little green. Grandpa would never know if a couple went missing.
So, Fred and Sandra had just finished eating a big, hard green peach. They nonchalantly wandered back to the front porch, doing a little eavesdropping as they went. That’s when they heard Uncle Will say, “Walter, did you hear about the children who died from eating green peaches?” Two sets of ears perked straight up, and two hearts skipped a beat.
“No, I didn’t hear about that. You don’t say!” said Grandpa.
“Oh yeah, it was in our local paper, some young’uns died from eating green peaches,” Uncle Will said. “It sure was a terrible tragedy. But you know how those green peaches are.”
Fred and Sandra looked at each other in horror. Instantly, they didn’t feel well at all. In fact, there were huge knots in their stomachs. They ran through the screen door to Grandma for help. There in her usual place, lying on her bed, was Grandma. Except to cook, this was where she spent most of her time anymore, just resting. They crawled up in the bed with her and lay down across the end. By this time, they were moaning, just knowing they were about to die. They felt their foreheads to see if they were feverish. They rolled and groaned. They got Janice Smith Grandma’s spit can from beside the bed because she came from the era of grandmas who dipped snuff. They hacked and spit, all to no avail. “We are dying, Grandma. Oh, we’re dying!” They hacked and spit harder. All the while, Grandma just listened and watched. She had raised nine children of her own. This wasn’t her first rodeo; she was a very wise woman. She knew that Grandpa hoarded his bottled Cokes in the smokehouse. He loved those bottled Cokes even better than peaches and drank one at 10 and 4 every day. He was very precise about the time. If you were there with him, you got one, too. But if you were late, you missed that Coke for the day. Fred and Sandra mean“They were moaning, just knowing while are telling Grandma they were about to die.” that today is the day they are going to die. They can just feel they are bound for the glory world beyond. They discuss how sad the funeral will be, while wiping their feverish brows with wet wash cloths. Grandma just listened, ’til finally she had heard enough. “You know, I think I remember a cure for eating green peaches,” she said. “You do!?! Oh, Grandma, do you? Tell us quick!!” Grandma said, “If you sneak out there to the smokehouse and get one of Grandpa’s bottled Cokes and drink it all up, every last drop, then you will be cured. And you won’t die.” Like a shot, out the back door they ran. Straight to the smokehouse, where they opened the weathered old door and grabbed the precious cure. Then back through the kitchen for the bottle opener, then back to Grandma. She helped them pop the caps off Grandpa’s hoarded Cokes. And sure enough…instantly they were cured! Yes, Grandma was surely a very wise old woman. — Janice Smith Wray, Georgia cowgranny10@gmail.com
Cotton Farming’s back page is devoted to telling unusual “farm tales” or timely stories from across the Cotton Belt. Now it’s your turn. If you’ve got an interesting story to tell, send a short summary to csmith@onegrower.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
