Youth on the
Farm: What Type of Farm Work Can They Perform?
By Sam Custer
OSU Extension,
Darke County
Are
you looking
for someone to help bale hay, hoe out marestail, apply nitrogen, move
livestock
or some other task on your farm. These summer tasks create both a high
need to
employ youth on the farm and the challenging task of understanding farm
youth
labor laws.
Peggy
Hall and
Catharine Daniels, OSUE Agricultural & Resource Law Program,
have compiled
the information below to help us understand our responsibilities in
hiring
children on the farm.
Imagine
Farmer X
is getting ready to cut hay and has hired Youth Y to help, who is 14
years old.
What exactly can Youth Y help with? Can he drive the tractor? Can he
ride on
the tractor? Does it make a difference whether Youth Y is the son,
daughter or
grandchild of Farmer X? Are there implications for allowing Youth X to
perform
farm work that he or she shouldn’t perform?
These
questions
are important to consider before hiring minors to work on your farm
this
summer. In a series
of blog posts, we
will discuss various aspects of federal and state regulations applying
to
minors working on farms. You
can follow
the blog at http://ohioaglaw.wordpress.com. First is the issue of what
type of work
the law allows you to assign to youth workers on the farm.
Whose
child?
The
relationship
of the minor you are hiring is important because the law treats your
own
children and grandchildren differently than non-related children
working on
your farm. If
the minor you hire is
your own child or grandchild, the law allows you to have the child do
any type
of job, including agricultural jobs considered “hazardous” under state
and
federal labor laws. Step
children,
adopted children, foster children and other children for whom you are
the
guardian are also exempt from the hazardous jobs regulation.
For
other
children, age matters
For
other youth
who are not your own child or grandchild, the type of work you may
assign the
child depends upon his or her age.
“Other children” includes strangers,
students, neighborhood children,
friends, nieces, nephews and any other relatives.
Only the older youth may perform
“hazardous”
farm work, as follows:
16
and 17 year
olds – May perform any type of farm job including agricultural jobs
considered
hazardous.
14
and 15 year
olds – May not perform any job listed as hazardous unless the child
holds a 4-H
or vocational agriculture certificate of completion for tractor
operation or
machine operation and the employer keeps a copy of the certificate on
file with
the minor employee’s record.
12
and 13 year
olds – May not perform
any job listed as
hazardous; may only perform non-hazardous jobs if with written consent
for
employment from a parent or guardian or if the child is working on a
farm that
also employs the child’s parent or guardian.
11
year olds and
younger – May not perform hazardous jobs.
May only perform non-hazardous farm work
if a parent or guardian gives
written consent and if the child will be working on a farm where
employees are
exempt from minimum wage requirements.
A
farm is exempt from minimum wage if the farm had 500 or fewer man-days
of
agricultural labor in the preceding calendar year; a man-day is any day
where a
worker performs at least one hour of agricultural labor.
What
jobs are
“hazardous”?
Ohio
has adopted
the federal government’s determination of “hazardous” activities for
youth,
which is based upon the risk of harm posed by an activity. Your own child or
grandchild may perform
hazardous tasks at any age, but other youth working on the farm must be
at
least 16 years of age to participate in these “hazardous” tasks:
Operating
a
tractor with over 20 PTO horsepower, or connecting or disconnecting an
implement or any of its parts to or from such tractor.
Operating
or
assisting to operate (including starting, stopping, adjusting, feeding,
or any
other activity involving physical contact associated with the
operation) any of
the following machines: corn picker, cotton picker, grain combine, hay
mower,
forage harvester, hay baler, potato digger, mobile pea viner, feed
grinder,
crop dryer, forage blower, auger conveyor, unloading mechanism of a
nongravity-type self-unloading wagon or trailer, power post-hole
digger, power
post driver or nonwalking type rotary tiller,
trencher or earthmoving equipment, fork
lift, potato combine or
power-driven circular, band, or chain saw.
Working
on a farm
in a yard, pen, or stall occupied by a bull, boar or stud horse
maintained for
breeding purposes, a sow with suckling pigs, or a cow with a newborn
calf with
umbilical cord present.
Felling,
bucking,
skidding, loading, or unloading timber with a butt diameter of more
than 6
inches.
Working
from a
ladder or scaffold (painting, repairing, or building structures,
pruning trees,
picking fruit, etc.) at a height of over 20 feet.
Driving
a bus,
truck or automobile when transporting passengers or riding on a tractor
as a
passenger or helper.
Working
inside a
fruit, forage, or grain storage designed to retain an oxygen deficient
or toxic
atmosphere; an upright silo within 2 weeks after silage has been added
or when
a top unloading device is in operating position; a manure pit; or a
horizontal
silo while operating a tractor for packing purposes.
Handling
or
applying (including cleaning or decontaminating equipment, disposal or
return
of empty containers, or serving as a flagman for aircraft applying)
agricultural chemicals classified under the Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide, and
Rodenticide Act (7 U.S.C. 135 et seq.) as Category I of toxicity,
identified by
the word “poison” and the “skull and crossbones” on the label or
Category II of
toxicity, identified by the word “warning” on the label.
Handling
or using
a blasting agent, including but not limited to dynamite, black powder,
sensitized ammonium nitrate, blasting caps, and primer cord.
Transporting,
transferring or applying anhydrous ammonia.
Going
back to our
example of Farmer X and Youth Y, if Youth Y is Farmer X’s child or
grandchild,
then the child would be permitted to drive the tractor to cut the hay
because
the hazardous restrictions do not apply.
However, if Youth Y is not Farmer’s X’s
child or grandchild, then he
would not be permitted to drive the tractor because it is considered a
hazardous job that 14 year olds may not perform, unless Youth Y holds a
4-H or
vocational agriculture certificate of completion for tractor operation.
What
if I violate
the “hazardous” jobs regulations?
Under
Ohio law,
you can be found guilty of a third degree misdemeanor for allowing a
minor
under the age of 16 to perform a hazardous job on your farm; penalties
are up
to a $500 fine and 60 days in jail for each violation.
Additionally, if the child is injured
while
engaged in an illegal hazardous activity, you could be assessed with an
increased workers’ compensation premium.
How
can I comply
with the law?
To
ensure that
you don’t violate the labor regulations on hazardous jobs for youth,
take a few
precautions to protect both you and your child employee:
Verify
the
child’s age and keep records of your verification.
Know
the list of
agricultural work that is considered hazardous.
Remember
that
only your children or grandchildren are exempt from the hazardous jobs
regulation; consider nieces, nephews, cousins and other relatives as
“other
children” who are subject to the hazardous jobs rules.
Ensure
that your
child employees know which jobs they may do and which jobs they may not
perform.
Review
safety
practices with your youth employees.
For
14 and 15
year olds who have completed a 4-H or vocational agriculture tractor or
machinery operation certificate, maintain a copy of the certificate
with the
employee’s records.
For
more detailed
information, visit the Darke County OSU Extension web site at
www.darke.osu.edu, the OSU Extension Darke County Facebook page or
contact Sam
Custer, at 937.548.5215.
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