Farmworker; Diversified 45-2092.00
Employer: Cottle Holdings Inc. dba
Location: Hopkins, SC
Workers needed: 39
Pay: $12.56/hour
Season: Jan 17, 2027 – Nov 16, 2027
Experience: 2 months
Employer-provided housing; Transportation provided/reimbursed
The job
Workers will perform essential manual labor tasks involved in the comprehensive cultivation, management, and harvesting of diverse agricultural crops including strawberries, pumpkins, flowers, blueberries, and blackberries.
Core Duties and Responsibilities:
• Crop Cultivation and Harvesting: Manually plant, cultivate, transplant, thin, weed, prune, and harvest field crops and horticultural specialties. Operate standard hand tools and machinery-such as tractors, shovels, trowels, hoes, tampers, pruning hooks, shears, and knives-to maintain crop health.
• Soil and Irrigation Management: Participate in soil preparation, including tilling, mixing soil, and applying fertilizers. Assist with irrigation activities and general farm infrastructure maintenance, such as constructing trellises and repairing fences or farm buildings.
• Post-Harvest Operations: Clean, grade, sort, and load harvested products efficiently.
• Strawberry Nursery Operations: Assist with planting, weeding, and removing initial berries from plants on a regular rotational schedule. Hand-harvest nursery plants following tractor undercutting, clean excess soil, bundle plants in standard quantities (26 per bundle), and secure roots properly to prevent sun exposure and dehydration.
• Greenhouse Operations: Handle seed propagation tasks, including seeding trays, stacking, moving materials to germination hot rooms, and transferring germinated trays to greenhouses.
Physical Requirements and Performance Standards:
• Physical Endurance: Workers must possess the physical strength and endurance required to perform repetitive harvesting and cultivation activities throughout the workday with speed and skill.
• Work Pace: Employees are expected to maintain a sustained, vigorous, and consistent pace, working efficiently under varying climatic and operational conditions.
• Health and Safety Considerations: Candidates must note that potential exposure to agricultural allergens-including ragweed, goldenrod, and agricultural chemicals (such as insecticides)-may affect individuals with specific sensitivities.
Sanitation and Workplace Policies:
• Hygiene Compliance: To ensure food safety and general personal well-being during the hand-harvesting of crops for human consumption, all personnel must strictly adhere to established sanitation protocols.
• Handwashing Mandate: Workers are required to thoroughly wash their hands with soap and water after all rest/meal breaks, following restroom use, and before entering fields or packing facilities.
• Environmental Cleanliness: Littering is strictly prohibited; workers must dispose of all waste and discarded items exclusively in designated receptacles.
Worker must possess the physical strength and endurance (ability to continue or last) to repeat the harvest process though out the workday, working quickly and skillfully to perform activities assigned during that activity. Workers must work at a sustained (continuing for an extended period of time without interruption), vigorous pace (quick and steady) and make bona fide efforts (made in earnest intent) to work efficiently (performing or functions in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort) and consistently (same way for a long time) that are reasonable under the climatic and other working conditions, Workers may not leave trash, or other discarded items in work areas or vehicles but must dispose of such items in provided receptacles. Workers must wash hands with soap and water after all bathroom and meal breaks. Allergies to varieties of ragweed, goldenrod, insecticides, related agricultural chemicals, etc., may affect worker’s ability to perform the work described herein.
Housing: Employer-provided (including mobile or range)
Meals: Employer-provided housing includes free and convenient kitchen facilities with appropriate equipment, appliances, cooking accessories, and dishwashing facilities for meal preparation. Workers will buy their own groceries. Once a week the employers will offer to provide (on a voluntary basis by the workers) free transportation to assure workers access to the closest store where they can purchase groceries. In the event kitchen facilities are not available workers staying in employer housing will be provided 3 meals per day at the current subsistence rate as posted in the federal register.
Transport: At the filing of this job order that is not known based on appointment availability at the consulate.
a) Incoming: The Employer will not advance transportation and subsistence costs to workers for transportation to or from the place of employment. Employer will reimburse workers as outlined in the regulations the most economical cost of transportation. If there are a sufficient number of workers, employer may arrange for a worker paid charter and reimburse workers as required in the regulations
Experience wanted: 2 months
Must have two months experience hand harvesting a perishable crop. Applicants must be able to furnish affirmative job references from recent employers. Must be able to work in the hot humid weather for extended periods of time. Workers are subject to post accident drug testing at no cost to the employee. All drug testing will occur after the worker begins his or her employment and is not a part of the interview process. Failing or refusing a drug test will result in immediate termination.
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