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Pennsylvania Seasonal Farm Labor Act
Purpose
The Seasonal Farm Labor Act was passed by the Pennsylvania legislature to improve the conditions of seasonal farm workers. The act establishes standards for wages, hours, conditions of work, housing, food facilities, fire protection, and safety. For example, the act provides that no seasonal farm worker will be required to work or be penalized for failing to work on any premises for more than six days in any one week, more than 10 hours in any one day, or more than 48 hours in any one week. If a worker is employed by more than one employer, the daily and weekly limits described above will apply to work performed on all premises. In addition, it establishes a permit requirement to operate and occupy seasonal farm labor camps, and lists prohibited practices by farm labor contractors and their agents.
Who must comply?
Farm labor contractors must comply with this act.
A "farm labor contractor" is any person who, for payment, wages, salary, fee, or other consideration, either for himself or on behalf of another person, recruits, solicits, hires, furnishes, or transports five or more seasonal farm workers (excluding members of his immediate family) in any calendar year for employment in agriculture. A seasonal farm worker is defined in the following list.
In the case of a partnership, firm, association, corporation, or organization that supplies seasonal farm workers solely for its own operation, the term “farm labor contractor” means the officer, official, supervisor, or employee most directly responsible for the activities mentioned above.
The term "farm labor contractor" does not include
- an individual farmer who hires seasonal workers only for his or her own operation. However, if an employee of an individual farmer engages in these activities, that employee is considered a "farm labor contractor";
- a person who arranges for the employment of seasonal farm workers from another nation and the employment is subject to an agreement between the United States and the foreign nation, or an agreement provided by an instrumentality of the foreign nation;
- those licensed under the employment agency law;
- nonprofit charitable organizations or educational institutions;
- farm labor employers. "Farm labor employer" includes every individual, firm, partnership, association, trust, corporation, receiver, or any person or group of persons acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee, employing or permitting to work any seasonal farm worker in the Commonwealth, and including every farmer, grower, nursery operator, or landowner who employs, or on whose premises or in whose interest is employed, any seasonal farm worker;
- a "seasonal farm worker"--any individual employed on a seasonal or temporary basis to perform agricultural labor in the planting, processing, storing, or transporting of agricultural commodities or farm products. In addition, the statute covers any person who lives in quarters owned, leased, or operated by an employer or a farm labor contractor and occupied by four or more unrelated persons, regardless of whether they work on a seasonal or temporary basis. The statute specifically excludes from its coverage persons who commute from their permanent residence to the work site in their own transportation or that provided by someone other than the employer or a farm labor contractor.
For more information
Contact the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Bureau of Labor Standards Seasonal Farm Labor Section.