The Effects of Pay and Work Conditions on Farmworker Retention

Gabbard, Susan; Perloff, Jeffrey M.

doi:10.1111/0019-8676.00064

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Workers' retention rates were expressed as a percentage of the workers who were employed in the same nursery or greenhouse for the past 2 years before the interviews. Gabbard and Perloff (1997) reported that farmworkers are more likely to return to employers who offer benefits, pay by the hour, provide good working conditions, and hire directly. The WRI was expected to be positive because automation or mechanization would improve professional esteem and work satisfaction as a result of better and safer working conditions.…”

Section: Empirical Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic Impacts of Mechanization or Automation on Horticulture Production Firms Sales, Employment, and Workers’ Earnings, Safety, and Retention

Posadas¹

2012

hortte

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Using a socioeconomic database collected by face-to-face interviews of nurseries and greenhouses, empirical models were estimated to measure the economic impacts of mechanization or automation on annual gross sales, annual employment, and workers’ earnings, safety and retention. The survey was conducted among 215 randomly selected wholesale nurseries and greenhouses located in eight southern states from Dec. 2003 to Nov. 2009. The level of mechanization or automation (LOAM) observed among the participating wholesale nurseries and greenhouses averaged 20% of the major tasks performed by workers. Nurseries and greenhouses that reported greater annual gross sales demonstrated higher levels of mechanization, implying economies of scale associated with technology adoption by these wholesale horticulture production firms. The increase in total workers’ earnings associated with improved mechanization indicated that nurseries and greenhouses were able to pay their workers higher wages and salaries. The increased levels of mechanization produced neutral effects on employment and raised the value of the marginal productivity (VMP) of labor, implying that technology adoption by wholesale nurseries and greenhouses did not displace any worker but instead improved total workers’ earnings. Growers that reported higher levels of mechanization hired fewer new workers with basic horticultural skills, especially among horticultural firms which operated both nursery and greenhouse enterprises. The length of training period for basic horticultural skills was not influenced by the level of mechanization, but was significantly extended when nurseries or greenhouses hired more new workers without basic horticultural skills. The number of work-related injuries increased as a result of improvements in mechanization, which primarily consisted of back strains, cut fingers, shoulder and ankle strains, and eye injury. The workers’ retention impact (WRI) of the level of mechanization turned out to be neutral or indeterminate since almost all of their workers were with them during the past 2 years before conducting the interviews. Overall, advances in mechanization or automation generated enhancing effects on the annual gross sales of horticultural production firms, enabled them to retain and pay better wages for their workers, hired fewer new skilled workers, and reported more work-related injuries.

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Section: Empirical Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic Impacts of Mechanization or Automation on Horticulture Production Firms Sales, Employment, and Workers’ Earnings, Safety, and Retention

Posadas¹

2012

hortte

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“…The retention of seasonal farmworkers depends on decisions by the workers and the employers. Gabbard and Perloff (1997) suggested that employers are more likely to rehire prime age, experienced, foreign-born workers and that the probability that a worker returns is increased by spending the last dollar of compensation on benefits or improving working conditions rather than on higher wages. Posadas (2012) observed exceedingly high workers' retention rates among the participating wholesale operations with no significant variations among various types of operations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hiring Preferences of Nurseries and Greenhouses in U.S. Southern States

Posadas¹,

Knight²,

Coker³

et al. 2014

hortte

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This work describes workers’ socioeconomic characteristics and evaluates the determinants of workers hiring decisions among 215 randomly selected wholesale nurseries and greenhouses located in eight selected southern states in the United States. The participating nurseries and greenhouses employed on average 5.40 permanent workers per horticulture operation or 2.27 permanent workers per acre under cultivation. Participating nurseries and greenhouses hired an average 2.38 part-time workers per horticulture operation or 0.80 part-time workers per acre placed under production. Empirical models were estimated to determine the significant factors affecting hiring decisions by this industry. Hiring decision models covered age groups, racial backgrounds, formal education levels, and gender. Analysis of the decision-making process involving the employment of hired workers among the participating wholesale nurseries and greenhouses provided insights into the hiring decisions in the industry. The hiring decisions by demographic characteristics serve as benchmarks for assessing impacts of regulations affecting the industry in the near future. About 1.9% of all the establishments employed more than 50 permanent and part-time workers and 1.4% employed more than 50 permanent workers.

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“…In fact, the only research available in South Africa in from 1957 on the labour turnover of urban "native" (black African) workers in Cape Town, which included farm workers (van der Horst, 1957). Internationally, there are only four studies on the labour turnover of farm workers, one on tobacco farms in Canada (Smit et al, 1985), two on farms in the USA (Taylor and Thilmany, 1993;Gabbard and Perloff, 1997) and a fourth on secondary analyses of the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) in the USA (Mines et al, 1991). These findings suggest that temporary farm workers leaving employment before completing the harvesting season are predominantly men, aged under 26, non-locals, inexperienced and/or recruited through employment centres (Smit et al, 1985, p. 166).…”

Section: Literature Review and Rationalementioning

confidence: 99%

“…From secondary analyses of the NAWS, Gabbard and Perloff (1997) suggest that farms in the USA retain 40 per cent of their temporary employees (p. 478). Retention was higher amongst single temporary farm workers and those unable to speak English.…”

Section: Literature Review and Rationalementioning

confidence: 99%

Labour turnover and considerations around work: temporary farm workers in South Africa

Wiltshire

2018

IJSSP

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to delineates workers’ labour turnover and considerations around work, in a context of informalisation of work, through a case study of temporary non-resident farm workers in the deciduous fruit sector in Ceres, South Africa. Design/methodology/approach The research design is a three-phase exploratory sequential mixed-methods strategy. Findings from 29 in-depth interviews were refined, verified and ranked in four focus groups. These informed grounded indicators in a survey of 200 farm workers employed in peak season and their 887 household members. Findings Considerations are informed by work-related insecurities, interpersonal workplace relationships and reproductive insecurity in the form of care of others, social linkages and residential insecurity, seemingly hierarchical. The least important considerations most thwart workers’ ability to complete fixed-term contracts and account for over 70 per cent of labour turnover in the form of resignations. In sum, workers experience constrained considerations around work arising from their material, social and economic conditions. Originality/value This is the first study on the labour turnover of farm workers in South Africa and the fifth globally. The research gives precedence to the voice of farm workers and is a thick description of workers’ considerations around work.

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The Effects of Pay and Work Conditions on Farmworker Retention

Cited by 9 publications

References 7 publications

Economic Impacts of Mechanization or Automation on Horticulture Production Firms Sales, Employment, and Workers’ Earnings, Safety, and Retention

Economic Impacts of Mechanization or Automation on Horticulture Production Firms Sales, Employment, and Workers’ Earnings, Safety, and Retention

Hiring Preferences of Nurseries and Greenhouses in U.S. Southern States

Labour turnover and considerations around work: temporary farm workers in South Africa

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