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Register for Becker Forum, Time Is Running Out!

 

Clock face with words changing times as the hands.

The 2020 Becker Forum is titled “Farm Labor: Times of Change,” and there is a lot of change to talk about. Producers from all agricultural sectors are invited to attend Becker Forum and sharpen their management skills in these times of changing labor requirements. Time is running out, register by Monday, January 6 at $95 or pay $120 to register at the door.

Register here: http://nysvga.org/expo/information/

Download the Becker Forum Flyer.

Farm employees have the right to organize into unions for the first time starting in 2020. John Wirenius, Chairperson of the NY Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), will join us to talk about the new law and it’s implications for farm employers. PERB is the state agency assigned to supervise and administer union-management relationships in the agricultural industry. In addition, we will have a panel to discuss farm management in a union environment consisting of a grower from California, an educational professional from Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and a labor attorney.

Dramatic labor law changes went into effect for New York farm employers on January 1, 2020. Attorney Joshua Viau will update what producers need to know and manage for with regard to overtime, day of rest requirements, the wage board, and sexual harassment regulations. He will also address the meaning of the recent temporary restraining order affecting specific farm employees.

New York is not the only place where change is occurring, Craig Regelbrugge is in charge of public policy and government relations for AmericanHort in Washington DC. He will give us an update on the policy environment and dramatic ag immigration policy changes currently under consideration at the federal level.

Other topics will include:

  • H-2A Application Process Changes
  • The View from California: How Growers are Adapting to Survive Changing Labor Regulations and Labor Markets

Becker Forum is organized by the New York State Vegetable Growers Association. The event is relevant and open to producers in all agricultural sectors in New York and surrounding states.

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By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post Register for Becker Forum, Time Is Running Out! appeared first in The Ag Workforce Journal 

“Farm Focused” Sexual Harassment Prevention Training

A team of Cornell Cooperative Extension educators recently adapted New York State’s model sexual harassment prevention training materials to be more relevant to the farm workplace. NY State DOL reviewed these materials to be sure they meet the content requirements and now they are ready for release. You will find both a presentation that teaches about sexual harassment and set of case studies that illustrate it in more detail. The presentation and case studies are available in English and Spanish and in PowerPoint or video format. You can use the PowerPoints as visual aids if you choose to do the presentation and review the case studies yourself. Or, you can show the video recordings of the presentation and case studies to train your farm employees.Stop Sexual Harrassment

We developed a comprehensive farm sexual harassment prevention resource page on the Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development website. The site contains a step-by-step guide to help a farm business meet New York’s requirements for employer sexual harassment prevention policies and training. Find the new resources under Step 5.

A few reminders as you prepare for the training:

  1. Treat it seriously. You could have someone in your workforce experiencing harassment right now.
  2. Customize your policy for your farm and put it in place before you do the training.
  3. Customize the “Sexual Harassment Prevention Poster/Notice” and distribute copies to your employees at the training.
  4. Be sure that you include an interactive portion such as a question and answer session, or brief feedback survey with your employees. You can pause the videos to create opportunities for interactive questions and discussion.
  5. Document your training activities.
  6. All New York employers are required to complete the training each year with all employees. The due date for this first time is October 9, 2019!

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By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post “Farm Focused” Sexual Harassment Prevention Training appeared first on Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development

Complying with Sexual Harassment Prevention Training in New York

All New York employers are required to have a sexual harassment prevention training policy in place since October 2018 and they are required to train all employees by October 9, 2019. See details in previous article.Stop Sexual Harrassment

Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators are planning a series of meetings and webinars to help farm employers learn about the requirements and resources they can use to get into compliance. See the detailed Flyer and registration information here: Sexual Harassment Prevention Training Flyer July 2019

We have prepared new, farm-friendly training materials for farm employers to use. These materials will meet the state’s training requirements. Please join the meeting to learn more.

Richard Stup, Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development

 

5 Learning Opportunities in 2 Webinars for Farmers

NYSDOL’s Division of Immigrant Policies and Affairs (DIPA) is hosting a series of short, interactive webinars for farms. Register with DIPA to learn and ask questions about several important topics. See details below and find an event flyer at this link: 2019 Lunchtime Learning Webinars.

NYSDOL message follows…

The New York State Department of Labor’s Division of Immigrant Policies and Affairs (DIPA) is hosting FREE lunch time webinars for farmers. View and listen to a 20MINUTE PRESENTATION while submitting your questions via the chat box. Then we will take 10 minutes of questions! We will then move on to the next topic. Attend one, two or all the sessions!

ON JUNE 4, 2019, WE WILL DISCUSS THESE TOPICS:
11:30-12:00: Why Does DIPA Visit My Farm Every Year?
12:00-12:30: What do I need to Know about the New Sexual Harassment Training Requirements?

ON JUNE 6, 2019, WE WILL DISCUSS THESE H2A PROGRAM TOPICS:
11:30-12:00: H-2A Program + NYS Labor Law Compliance = Successful H-2A Application?
12:00-12:30: H-2A Housing Inspections: What do I need to Know?
12:30-1:00: I Received a “Referral of Domestic Applicant,” What Do I Do Now?
Please E-mail dipa@labor.ny.gov to register for these important sessions.
For questions, call Caylin Gwise at 585-258-8855.

Sexual Harassment Prevention: Learn To Do the Training

Many farm employers are using the winter months to accomplish necessary business tasks and human resources tasks. For New York employers, sexual harassment training should be high on the list to get done. There are questions in the farm employer community about the training requirements so I wanted to focus on those with this article.

  1. When must farm employers provide their employees with training? The new law took effect October 9, 2018 and that was the date by which employers were required to put a sexual harassment prevention policy in place. Employers have until October 9, 2019 to complete the required training with all current employees. After that, all employees should be re-trained annually and new employees should be train “as soon as possible, but certainly no later than one month from their start date. New employees should be given a copy of the sexual harassment prevention policy at the time they start work.
  2. What resources are available to provide sexual harassment prevention training? Many companies have required sexual harassment prevention training for all employees for many years already, so there are many training programs, online courses, videos and other materials available from training vendors. Generally, the existing resources are based on federal law as summarized by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. New York’s new law is also based on this federal definition of sexual harassment law but it contains a few new requirements for employers so using an older training or one from outside New York may not fully meet New York’s requirements. New York has released a model sexual harassment prevention policy and training support materials. The training materials are available in multiple formats including Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, and PowerPoint.
  3. How should farm employers complete the training? New York’s law outlines a set of minimum standards that sexual harassment prevention training must meet. Employers must meet or exceed the minimum standards, either by using the state’s model training or a custom training. The state included 6 features that training must include, we’ll explore these in detail at the upcoming Labor Road Show.
    1. Be interactive.
    2. Include an explanation of sexual harassment consistent with guidance issued by the Department of Labor in consultation with the Division of Human Rights.
    3. Include examples of conduct that would constitute unlawful sexual harassment.
    4. Include information concerning the federal and state statutory provisions concerning sexual harassment and remedies available to victims of sexual harassment.
    5. Include information concerning employees’ rights of redress and all available forums for adjudicating complaints.
    6. Include information addressing conduct by supervisors and any additional responsibilities for such supervisors.
  4. How should farm employers document that they did the training? There’s no specific guidance in the new law on documenting training. Employers should use a best practices such as providing a certificate of completion to each participant, getting the participant to sign it, and then filing in the employee file. Or, keeping a log of who attended the training and getting each participant to sign the attendance log, keep this log in your permanent training file. I also recommend learning to use online storage systems so that you can scan these training logs and keep track of when employees have completed training and are due for refresher training.
  5. What if my employees don’t speak English? Employees should be trained in the language they speak and understand. The state has translated all of the model policies and training materials into 6 different languages including Spanish and Haitian-Creole. You can find these translated materials by simply scrolling down each page where the English language materials are found.

Join us for the upcoming Labor Road Show II where Attorney Michael Sciotti will answer all of your questions about sexual harassment prevention.

  • Mon. Jan. 28, 2019, Livingood’s Restaurant, 697 Bear Swamp RD, Peru, NY
  • Tues, Jan. 29, 2019, Cornell Cooperative Extension – Saratoga County, Ballston Spa, NY
  • Weds, Jan. 30, 2019, New York State Fairgrounds, Art & Home Center Building, Syracuse, NY
  • Thurs, Jan. 31, 2019, Cornell Cooperative Extension – Ontario County, Canandaigua, NY

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By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post Sexual Harassment Prevention: Learn To Do the Training appeared first on Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development.

Sexual Harassment Webinar Posted Online

We were very pleased to work with New York Farm Bureau and Farm Credit East to deliver a webinar on Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. We had a great turnout last week and some excellent follow up questions. You can find the webinar posted here and free for you to view. The webinar is not sexual harassment prevention training for employees, rather, it is training to help employers comply with New York’s new sexual harassment prevention laws. We went into great detail about examples of sexual harassment that occur in farm businesses and requirements that farm employers must meet to comply.

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By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post Sexual Harassment Webinar Posted Online appeared first on Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development.

 

Webinar: Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Hold the date! November 20, 2018 at 12:00 PM

Why? Because every New York employer is required to have a policy and training to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

New York Farm Bureau and Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development, with the support of Farm Credit East, will host an educational webinar to explain the new sexual harassment requirements for farm employers. Topics to be covered include:

  • Prevalence of sexual harassment
  • Why take this seriously?
  • The law, what is required?
  • What is sexual harassment?
  • Policy  options
  • How to get training completed
  • Special obligations for supervisors and managers
  • Investigating a sexual harassment complaint

Sign up details will be available soon. Watch Cornell Ag Workforce Development’s website for future announcements.

Becker Forum to focus on Ag Labor

2019 Becker Forum Flyer

Ithaca, NY, November 9, 2018

 Farm worker housing, labor law compliance, and the federal guest worker program (H-2A) are key themes for the 2019 Becker Forum. The event will take place on Monday, January 14 at the Holiday Inn in Liverpool, New York. Employer compliance with new sexual harassment prevention laws will also be a prominent topic.

 Featured speaker Lynn Jacquez, from the CJ Lake law firm in Washington, DC will address what policy positions to expect from the new Congress and the Administration in the year ahead. She will also address immigration enforcement trends and worksite issues that are important for farm employers.

 Three presentations will focus on farm-provided employee housing. Nancy Hagopian from the NYS Department of Health will provide recommendations for improving existing housing. Ed Urbanick from Farm Credit East will discuss financing for construction and renovation of housing. A featured farm employer panel will discuss best practices for managing worker housing.

 The forum will also provide information related to the H-2A guest worker program, including how some dairy farms are successfully using it to access workers. Current changes in the H-2A program will be reviewed and information will be provided on how to effectively hire foreign-born workers through the program. 

Attorney Michael Sciotti from the Barclay Damon Law Firm in Syracuse will inform farm employers about what they must do to comply with New York’s new regulations on sexual harassment prevention policies and training.  

At the end of the afternoon there will be an opportunity for questions and discussion regarding critical workforce issues.  For a complete agenda and to register go to http://nysvga.org/expo/information/, or email nysvegetablegrowers@gmail.com. 

 For more details about the program contact:

 Richard Stup, Ph.D., Agricultural Workforce Specialist, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, (607) 255-7890, rstup@cornell.edu.

Sexual Harassment Prevention: New York Updates the Model Policy, Training and Requirements

Update: The New York State Department of Labor released translations of the model sexual harassment prevention policy and training. You will find it in Spanish, Haitian-Creole and five other languages.

The New York State Department of Labor released the updated model sexual harassment prevention materials today. Employers, here are your key action items for right now:

  1. Put your policy in place now. All New York employers are required to have a sexual harassment prevention policy in place beginning October 9, 2018, next Tuesday. Your policy must meet or exceed all of New York’s requirements in the model policy. Most farms don’t currently have a policy so it’s OK to just use the state’s model policy. There are a couple of things your should do to customize it for your farm:
    • Download the policy from the state’s website in either PDF or Microsoft Word format.
    • Change the yellow highlighted “Employer Name” text to your farm or business name.
    • Designate a contact person. On pages 1, 2, 5, and 6 of the model policy there is yellow highlighted text that refers to the “person or office designated.” You are supposed to insert the name or office of the person to whom any harassment complaints should be reported. In most farms this will be the owner, ideally you should list two people here so that the employee has an option of at least two people they could go to. (This is to avoid the situation where the person doing the harassing is the same person designated to receive harassment complaints.)
    • Print copies and provide to your employees or inform employees and give them electronic access to your new policy.
  2. Provide the “Combat Harassment Complaint Form.” Scroll down the state’s website to find the model complaint form, also in PDF and Word format. Incorporate this form into your handbook right after the sexual harassment policy or print copies and provide it to your employees.
  3. Customize and post the “Sexual Harassment Prevention Poster” in your break room or office. This is optional but it is a good practice.
  4. Plan to provide training. We have until October 9, 2019 to provide training for all employees, that’s a welcome relief of one year thanks to the great input provided by farm organizations and other employer groups. Yes, that means all employees must get training, full-time, part-time, seasonal, permanent, H2A, managers, non-family, family, and that high school kid who runs the weed whacker in the summertime. Plan to have a refresher training once per year for all employees and to incorporate sexual harassment training into your new employee onboarding program.

All of the materials are available only in English right now. You will be in compliance if you put your policy in place in English for now. Later, when other translations are provided by the state, you will be required to provide the policy and training in a language that your employees can understand.

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By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post Sexual Harassment Prevention: New York Updates the Model Policy, Training and Requirements appeared first on Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development.