1. Since August of this year, Spiech Farms has not made drinking water available to 100 or so workers. Employees have been required to bring their own water or purchase water from a private vendor who sells bottled water from a car parked near the worksite. 2.
Spiech Farms provides three portable bathrooms at the worksite for employee use. None of these bathrooms have toilet paper, running water, or hand sanitizer. Handwashing is impossible. Cleanliness is an issue. On more than one occasion, one of the toilets was filled beyond the point of sanitary use. These bathrooms have been cleaned once since work began in August, and this cleaning was limited to surfaces and did little to remedy the complete lack of basic sanitation supplies. There is still no toilet paper, no running water, and no hand sanitizer. After using these inadequate facilities, the workers must then return to work, handling grapes. Workers have complained about the conditions to management on multiple occasions. They have asked for running water, toilet paper, and cleaner facilities. None of these requests have been satisfied, and the conditions remain inadequate today. 3. The three portable bathrooms provided to workers are located about half a mile away from where the workers are harvesting grapes. The workers have occasionally shifted to working in adjacent fields, but each field has been located about the same half-mile distance from the bathrooms. In order to use the bathroom, employees are required to drive from the field where they work to where the bathrooms are located. Not all workers have vehicles. They either walk the half-mile distance each way or forego using the bathroom altogether. This situation does not provide reasonable use for workers to use the bathroom "as frequently as necessary". 4. The conditions, described above, create unsanitary and unsafe conditions especially as workers deal with the magnified safety risks of COVID-19.
Source: Osha.gov | Receipt Date: 2020-09-25
Source: Osha.gov | Receipt Date: 2020-09-25
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