Last updated: 4/23/2020

Farmworker COVID-19 Workplace Safety Plan

Farmworkers are essential workers, meaning they continue to work during the COVID-19 pandemic despite local shelter-in-place and quarantine orders. But farmworkers are also uniquely vulnerable to COVID-19 due to their communal living and working arrangements. Using this document, farmworkers can evaluate how prepared their workplace is for COVID-19 and can take steps to protect themselves from the virus.

This document was prepared by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and is not legal advice. Farmworkers who want free, confidential legal advice about their rights at work should contact us.

1. What is this virus—and what are your rights?

COVID-19 is a respiratory illness that spreads easily from person to person. It can be very serious. The U.S. government estimates that 20 to 30% of people with COVID-19 symptoms are hospitalized, and 2 to 3% die. Even young, healthy people can become seriously ill.

In the face of this serious illness, you have the right to:

  • a safe workplace free from known health and safety hazards.

  • speak up about health and safety concerns without being retaliated against.

  • be trained in a language you understand.

  • be provided necessary safety gear, such as protective masks.

  • request a government inspection and speak to the inspector.

For more information about the virus and how to keep safe at work, check the OSHA and CDC COVID-19 websites. These websites are listed below under “Resources.”

2. What is the farm's health and safety plan?

Before you travel to a new farm, ask your boss or recruiter about the farm’s health and safety plan. If you can,reject any job that isn’t taking worker health and safety seriously. Ask about:

• The housing facilities. To be safe, your boss should have prepared three kinds of separate housing facilities for (1) healthy workers, (2) confirmed COVID-19 cases, and (3) suspected COVID-19 cases. 

  • These separate facilities should not share bathrooms, kitchens, or bedrooms with one another.

  • Your boss might have worked with other farmers in the area to set up the isolation and quarantine housing, or found rooms at a local hotel.

  • Any special isolation or quarantine housing should still meet all existing housing standards for farmworkers.

• The health care available in the area. Ask how far it is to the nearest free or low-cost health care provider, such as a migrant health clinic (for Spanish, click here, or see “Resources” for the websites).

  • If you or your boss cannot find a health care provider, ask the local health department for assistance.

  • Your boss should know the health department’s number and provide it to workers (such as by a poster). Under federal law, camp supervisors are required to report suspected outbreaks or instances of communicable diseases to local health authorities.

• The protective equipment and sanitation facilities. To keep yourself safe at work, you’ll need supplies—and you should not be charged for this personal protective equipment. Ask if your boss has:

  • Stocked up on sanitation equipment, including potable water, facemasks, hand sanitizer (at least 60% alcohol), soap, tissues, toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies, and disinfectants that are effective against the coronavirus.

  • Created portable toilet and sanitation stations stocked with toilet paper, soap, single-use paper towels, and water in each field location.

  • Enough utensils, cookware, and cleaning supplies so workers can sanitize kitchen items between uses, as well as water coolers with plenty of single-use cups.

• How you’ll travel safely to the farm. You’ll be traveling through areas with different quarantine orders related to COVID-19. Ask your boss for a document you can show to local authorities as you travel to prove that you are an essential farmworker excused from local orders.

3. What training should you receive?

  • As soon as you arrive, you should be trained about the risks from COVID-19, your rights, and the steps to protect everyone from infection. Your boss should explain that you have the right to report health and safety concerns, and that you will not be retaliated against for making a complaint or using sick leave.

  • In addition to this mandatory training, a responsible boss should have COVID-19 health and safety meetings to take steps like:

    • gather workers’ emergency contact information and provide an emergency contact for you to use in case of sickness.

    • designate an individual who is trained in and responsible for ensuring that your housing is cleaned regularly and correctly.

    • regularly screen everyone for symptoms of COVID-19 such as fever, cough, or shortness of breath, and move any workers with symptoms into the prepared separate housing for suspected cases.

    Your boss should display in a noticeable place information that describes COVID-19, best practices for health and sanitation, and your rights, including the required OSHA poster. This information should be posted in a language you understand. Click here for the required OSHA notice in Spanish, and here for the notice in Haitian Creole, or see “Resources” for links to all these posters.

4. How can you help prevent infections?

  • Rearrange and clean your housing.

    • Furniture in common areas (for example, beds, clothing storage, seats, and tables) should be at least 6 feet apart when used by multiple people. Talk to your boss about the best way to arrange your housing.

    • Some studies suggest that larger distances are safer, especially for sleeping areas. If possible, arrange sleeping areas so no more than two workers sleep in any room or 200-square-foot area. o Keep stores of facemasks, disposable gloves, and hand sanitizer near the doors of housing units.

    • Regularly remove waste.

    • Create a daily schedule for cleaning and disinfecting your housing, bathrooms, vehicles, workplaces, and equipment, using the stocked supplies provided free of charge.o Keep track of the hours you spend on cleaning. When you are paid, check to see if these hours were compensated; you may have a right to get paid for cleaning time.

  • Keep a safe distance.

    • Stagger all trips in buses and vans (including to work sites, laundromats, the grocery store, orother supply stores) so that you can stay at least 6 feet apart while in the vehicle. This may require making multiple trips with fewer people.

    • Comply with CDC guidance limiting the number of people in group gatherings (currently 10 people), including on trips into town and during breaks and meals. This may require making multiple trips with fewer people or staggering break and mealtimes.

    • Talk to your boss or crew leader about structuring work crews so you can stay at least 6 feet apart and avoid group gatherings in the fields and other worksites.

  • Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer before and after work, meals, bathroom breaks, trips to stores or laundromats, using group transportation, or handling any shared items such as tools, washing machines, and cooking utensils.

  • Wear a face mask when you’re around other people, including other workers in your housing. If you don’t have a face mask, wear a bandana or other covering over your nose and mouth.

5. What happens if you get sick?

Unless your boss employs more than 500 people, you are entitled to two weeks of emergency paid sick leave (for Spanish, click here, or see “Resources” list) if you have been advised to quarantine by a health care provider or are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and seeking a diagnosis.

  • If you develop symptoms of COVID-19 such as a fever, cough, or shortness of breath, tell your employer right away. It is unlawful for your employer to retaliate against you for reporting an illness you got at work.

  • Call a doctor or the closest migrant health clinic to determine what steps to take next. Ask someone you trust to help with interpreting if necessary. Tell the doctor you live with other workers and ask if you should come in for treatment. Follow the doctor’s orders.

  • While you are experiencing symptoms or on leave, a responsible boss should take steps to take care of you and to protect himself and the other workers at the farm, such as:

    • moving you to the prepared isolation housing for suspected cases.o checking on you to monitor you for worsening symptoms (while wearing a facemask and disposable gloves to protect himself)

    • ventilating your room at regular intervals.

    • providing you with food, water, and medical supplies.

    • providing you with access to follow-up medical care as needed.

  • Other workers who have had close contact with you (defined by the CDC as more than 10 minutes in an enclosed space without a facemask) should self-monitor for symptoms for 14 days. To be safe, those workers should be entirely separated from non-exposed workers for that entire 14-day period.

  • If a health care provider tells you to come in for evaluation or treatment, your boss should provide transportation. Circulate air by partially lowering windows (weather permitting), and have all people in the vehicle, including you, wear disposable gloves and a facemask.

  • If your workplace is covered by workers’ compensation, you may be able to file a claim to recover medical benefits and lost wages, but claims are decided on a case-by-case basis.

6. How can I report unsafe conditions or retaliation?

Regardless of whether you have lawful immigration status, you have the right to a healthy and safe workplace.

  • If you can, tell your boss about the problem. Talk about the issue with your coworkers and bring up your concern together, if you possible. Make a record of the problem by putting your concern in writing or taking pictures or videos. Keep your evidence somewhere safe and accessible.

  • If you think you’re working under unsafe conditions, you can file a confidential complaint with OSHA, agovernment agency that enforces federal health and safety laws, or with your local city or county health department. To file a health and safety complaint with OSHA, call 800-321-6742 or visit https://www.osha.gov/workers/file_complaint.html.

  • You can also file a complaint with OSHA (using the same phone number and website) if your employer retaliates against you for exercising your health and safety rights.

  • You can also call us for free, confidential legal advice about your rights at work at 888-988-9996 (if you live or work in Texas) or 866-721-7828 (if you live or work in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, or Tennessee).

7. Resources