USDA Farm Labor Stabilization Program: $65 Million for Employers

USDA recently announced the Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot Program (FLSP), to distribute $65 million in the form of grants to employers to “improve the resiliency of the food and agricultural supply chain by addressing workforce challenges farmers and ranchers face.” FLSP touts three goals:

“Goal 1: Drive U.S. economic recovery and safeguard domestic food supply by addressing current labor shortages in agriculture;
Goal 2: Reduce irregular migration from Northern Central America through the expansion of regular pathways; and
Goal 3: Improve working conditions for all farmworkers.”

Important details of the program are available at the FLSP website, including  that eligible applicants include employers who have used or at least applied to use the H-2A program, and the application deadline is November 28, 2023. This program encourages employers to recruit H-2A workers from countries in northern Central America: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. For this grant application it is critical to read the notice of funding in detail. Don’t just rely on what you see on the website and press releases, download and read this 32-page document thoroughly!

Pages 8-11 of the notice of funding get into details of what will be expected of farm employers who successfully receive a grant. Baseline requirements for all successful awardees include: universal protections and benefits for all employees, not just those in H-2A; employer participation in research that includes access to employers’ full workforce by USDA and federal partners; and “know your rights and resources” training provided by “farmworker-trusted entities.” In addition to these baseline requirements, successful grant awardees will also need to make certain commitments about their employment practices in three areas:

  1. Responsible recruitment: efforts to recruit H-2A workers from northern Central America using government ministries.
  2. Pay, benefits, and working conditions: example can include overtime, bonus pay, paid sick leave, and collaborative employee-management working groups.
  3. Partnership agreements, such as: participation in a worker-driven social responsibility program, participation in a collective bargaining agreement (union), committing to neutrality, access, and voluntary recognition when employees indicate an interest in forming a union.

For some employers, these conditions and expectations of receiving between $25,000 and $2,000,000 in grant awards may be a good fit. For other employers, these conditions will be much too intrusive in exchange for any amount of money. Farm employers should read the notice of funding in detail and reflect carefully about how they wish to proceed with this program. But don’t reflect too long, applications are due November 28, 2023, it’s time to get working if you want to participate in this grant opportunity.

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Pregnancy and Maternity at Work

Recent changes to employment law at both the federal and New York state levels affect pregnancy and maternity at work. This topic comes up frequently with employers of all sizes and types so it’s good to review and update your policies and plans to support working mothers. Employers have three issues to consider:

  • accommodations for the pregnant employee while she is working,
  • leave time after the baby is born, and
  • assisting the nursing mother after she returns to work.

Accommodations for Pregnant Employees

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) is a new federal law that went into effect on June 27, 2023. The law applies to all employers with 15 or more employees, but it provides good guidelines that even smaller-sized employers should consider. Check out a webinar, poster, and a helpful infographic to learn more. The possible accommodations for a pregnant woman are reasonable for most employers and include items such as:

  • Being able to sit or drink water
  • Receiving closer parking
  • Having flexible hours
  • Receiving appropriately sized uniforms and safety apparel
  • Receiving additional break time to use the bathroom, eat, and rest
  • Taking leave or time off to recover from childbirth
  • Being excused from strenuous activities and/or exposure to chemicals not safe for pregnancy

Of course, this all depends on what exactly your employee does in her job. Get input from your employee about exactly what accommodations she needs.

Both federal law and New York law provide employment protections for pregnant employees. It is illegal to discriminate against a woman because she is pregnant.

Leave time

Employers in the U.S. with 50+ employees  have to follow the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). FMLA provides for up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave after a child is born, health benefits  maintained while the employee is away, and that employees must be able to return to the same or similar job, see the FMLA website for details. Smaller employers often follow the guidelines of FMLA for their family leave policies because it is increasingly a necessary part of a competitive benefits package.

Essentially all New York employers are required to provide paid family leave (PFL) for employees. New York’s PFL is an insurance program that employers and employees pay into, and this fund then pays out benefits to cover 67% of an employee’s average weekly wage when they take leave from work for a variety of reasons including bonding with a newborn child for up to 12 weeks. New York’s PFL also requires employers to allow employees to return to the same job after the leave, maintain health insurance during the leave, and prohibits discrimination or retaliation against employees for taking paid family leave.

Accommodation for Nursing Mothers

Once your employee returns to work, she is likely to be nursing for a while. Federal law includes the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP Act) which provides nursing employees the rights to receive break time to pump and a private place to pump at work. Further, the “Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to provide reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for their nursing child for one year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk. Employees are entitled to a place to pump at work, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public.”

New York state law provides further protections for nursing mothers for breast milk expression in the workplace. This law applies to all New York employers. Please see the detailed factsheets on the NYS Department of Labor’s website for more information.

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By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post Pregnancy and Maternity at Work appeared in The Ag Workforce Journal 

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NY Farm Labor Survey…Only Two Weeks Left!

Farm employers, share your voice through the NY Farm Labor in Transition Survey. This is vital information to understand how the farm labor situation affects employers! Please take about 20-30 minutes of your time to include your response now, only two weeks remain! All data will be kept confidential, results will only be reported as group data, and no personally identifiable data will be reported. Respondents will receive a summary of the results. Prepare by assembling the following data from your payroll records:

  • The number of full-time, part-time, seasonal, and H-2A positions you employed in 2021 and 2022.
  • Total regular hours worked by all of your hired employees in 2021 and 2022.
  • Total overtime hours worked by all of your hired employees in 2021 and 2022.
  • Number of positions filled by owners and unpaid family members, and hours worked by them, in 2021 and 2022.
  • Number of employees who left voluntarily or were fired in 2021 and 2022.

Click the button to complete the survey now:

Thanks for doing your part to promote the NY Farm Labor in Transition Survey. This survey gives farm employers the chance to tell their farm labor story. Please ask your farm neighbors, clients, and customers to complete the survey for their farms. Your personal request goes a long way, and here are a few tools to support you:

Download a helpful flyer here: Farm Labor in Transition Survey Flyer.

Use the following QR code to give easy access for cell phones:QR code for survey

Thanks for you support!

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RESEARCH REPORT: How New York Farmers Adapted to 60-hour Overtime

New York farmers are putting much thought into adapting their businesses in response to the state’s farm labor overtime requirements. Cornell researchers are studying how farms adapted and continue to adapt to changing regulatory requirements and to an overall tight and competitive labor market. A multi-year project called “New York Farm Workforce in Transition” is currently underway with objectives to help farm employers adapt in ways that will support farm profitability, increase employee productivity, and encourage employee retention.

A new report is available that focuses on how New York farms adapted in  2020 as the first 60-hour overtime threshold was implemented for farm labor in the state. The report “How New York Farmers Adapted to New Farm Labor Overtime Requirements” explores the strategies that specialty crop and dairy farms used to respond to the regulation, and employer perceptions about how overtime affected employee recruiting and retention. Access the report here: How New York Farmers Adapted to New Farm Labor Overtime Requirements

More data and analysis from this research project will be published as it becomes available. Be sure to subscribe to the Ag Workforce Journal to get the latest updates, click the blue subscribe button near the bottom of the screen.

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