Field Workers (Cabbage)

Work description

Crops: Cabbage Cabbage in preparation for value added: Heavy labor field work to harvest Cabbage in preparation for value added. Employees cut, bag, and load cabbage in the field. Employee will walk in uneven furrows behind a harvesting conveyor belt to cut the produce. Under the direction of the field foreman, the worker then determines the size and quality of the cabbage to be harvested and using a harvesting knife with a coring attachment, the employee bends at the waist, grasps produce and cuts the head from its roots. Employee then trims the outer leaves from the head and cores it with coring attachment either by hand or with the machines coring mechanism to prepare it to be placed in a carton/tote or on the belt. The cored cabbage is then carried down the belt where employees inspect quality, core, and remove loose leaves prior to being dropped in a bin where it is sorted to bin capacity or to be field packed. Cutter places the product on a table for the packer either or combination of; tie, spot wash, sort, wrapped, sealed, and placed into a carton or tote. The cartons or totes for the product are constructed by unfolding and bending the material as designed to form a box. Carton is labeled and marked as required. The process is repeated. Employees also may do the same process without coring the cabbage. With the non-coring process, the employees may place whole cabbage heads directly into bin or on belt. The cartons, totes or bins are then stalked onto pallets on the deck of the harvester or trailer. Cartons or totes with product can weigh up to 50 lbs. Empty pallets can weigh up to 95 lbs. A forklift carries the pallets onto a trailer and between two workers the pallets are carried to be assembled. Workers may occasionally and/or sporadically perform duties associated with and directly related to the primary duties such as cleaning up field before during and after harvest, picking up trash, discarding cartons and assisting as safety monitor when equipment is turning in the field to begin a new pass. In the event that an employee is injured while on the job, the Company will provide a temporary work assignment that will be as closely related to the job duties described herein, while the employee recovers from a work-related illness which meets with physicians’ clearance to return to work under specific limitations. The work assignment will not be a permanent position, it will be temporary to accommodate the injured worker under doctor’s restrictions and time period that may differ from the heavy field work described within.