THE FAIR FOOD PROGRAM COVID-19 PROTOCOLS - Protecting farmworkers' human rights during the COVID-19 pandemic

THE FAIR FOOD PROGRAM
                      COVID-19 PROTOCOLS

Protecting farmworkers' human rights during the COVID-19 pandemic
The Fair Food Program’s complaint hotline has continued to function uninterrupted
throughout the pandemic, as has the CIW and FFSC’s communication with Participating
Growers. With that constant stream of communication among workers on the ground, the
FFP, and Participating Growers, we were able to collectively identify and implement many
crucial best practices on farms across the Fair Food Program, practices that resulted in
significantly lower infection rates on participating farms than in the broader farmworker
community beyond the Program’s protections.

Those best practices included: Providing sanitizing resources and critical PPE to farms
across the program and workers in the community of Immokalee; adding more buses to
allow for spacing of workers during transportation to and from work; taking workers'
temperatures and providing hand sanitizer prior to boarding buses; arranging for testing
and isolating any symptomatic workers or potentially exposed workers; purchasing
groceries and other necessities for workers at grower-provided housing to limit exposure
for workers through multiple shopping trips and help alleviate the economic impact on
workers caused by the sharp decline in demand at the outset of the pandemic.

In anticipation of the upcoming 2020-2021 season, the Fair Food Program’s Working Group
(consisting of representatives of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and select
Participating Growers, who provide input on policies and procedures necessary to
implement Fair Food standards on participating farms) evaluated the previous season’s
experience with voluntary best practices and developed the first set of mandatory,
privately enforceable standards to protect farmworkers from COVID-19 in the US
agricultural industry.

The Fair Food Program's COVID-19 Illness Prevention, Assessment,
and Response Plan
The FFP’s "COVID-19 Illness Prevention, Assessment, and Response Plan" became effective
on September 15, 2020. These protocols will be monitored and enforced on all Fair Food
Program participating farms, as part of the FFP’s Code of Conduct, through all of the FFP’s
usual mechanisms: worker education sessions, audits, and the program’s 24/7 complaint
line. Like all FFP standards, the COVID protocols will be backed by market consequences
for non-compliance.

These standards are the baseline that must be observed on all farms across the FFP. In
any state where legal standards are more demanding, the Code requires that the higher
standard be followed.

To date, however, most states where the FFP functions have no mandatory legal standards
concerning COVID-19 protections for farmworkers. [The FFP currently functions in FL, GA,
SC, VA, MD, NJ and TN. Only VA has mandatory state standards, to date.]. Participating
Growers are encouraged to go beyond the baseline requirements and many are doing so.
This is not required, however, given that FFP growers span a wide range of scale and
capacity, from farms employing only a handful of workers to growers with thousands of
employees.

Examples of mandatory COVID-19 protocols for Fair Food Program
Participating Growers

EDUCATION
   Educate supervisors and workers on accurate information about
   symptoms and severity of COVID-19, as well as best prevention practices
   in their preferred language using agreed upon materials, including those
   generated in collaboration with CIW.
   Train workers to report daily if they are experiencing any symptoms
   before boarding the bus or starting work.

SANITATION
   Disinfect buses before and after each use.
   Disinfect bathrooms and eating areas at the start and end of every
   workday, and between crews during lunch.
   Provide handwashing stations or hand sanitizer for workers at clock in
   and out, ticket counting, lunch, shade structures, bathrooms and
   paycheck distribution.

MASKS
  Provide all employees with masks, cost-free, train for proper use and
  make additional disposable masks available onsite.
  Require all employees to wear masks on transportation (including bus
  driver), during group meetings and any high-contact points, for
  example:
      Clock-in and clock-out
      Paycheck distribution
      Ticket Counting
      Bus boarding and de-boarding
      Lunch/breaks

SOCIAL DISTANCING
  Whenever space permits, seat workers one person per bench, alternate window
  and aisle seats by row, and group workers on bus based on housing and crew.
  Stagger arrival times for clocking in and out as well as lunch times (and/or provide
  more seating for lunch areas).
  Whenever possible, conduct meetings, including trainings outside. If meetings
  must be indoors, limit numbers to allow for social distancing.
  At employer-provided housing, fill all available units, to minimize workers per unit.
  Ensure safe spacing or physical partitions between workers’ beds.

RESPONSE TO SYMPTOMATIC, EXPOSED
OR COVID-19 POSITIVE WORKERS
  Isolate and provide testing, paid and facilitated by the employer for any workers
  experiencing symptoms including fever.
  Announce to workers any time there is a positive test in the same crew, and
  inform FFSC.
  Provide screening with daily temperature checks for 14 days for asymptomatic
  workers who have been exposed to a COVID-positive co-worker sharing the same
  housing or transportation.
  Require that workers who test positive for COVID-19, are experiencing COVID-19
  symptoms, or who believe they had COVID-19, not work until they have been
  fever-free with improved symptoms for 3 days, and no sooner than 10 days since
  their first appearance of symptoms or positive test (whichever is later).
  Provide separate living areas for workers who are symptomatic or test positive
  from other workers for the quarantine period specified above.
  Facilitate provision and delivery of groceries and other necessities to quarantined
  workers.
  Arrange for workers with symptoms of COVID-19 and COVID-19 confirmed
  residents to be evaluated by a medical provider.

SICK LEAVE POLICIES
  Guarantee that workers who miss work due to COVID-19 will be able to return to
  their jobs at the end of their quarantine period without discipline.
  Waive requirement of doctors’ notes for absence to be excused due to COVID-19.
  Provide paid sick leave under federal law if applicable (employers with fewer
  than 500 employees).