Effective immediately and over the objection of the Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregon Governor Kate Brown has issued an executive order regulating temporary worker housing in the agriculture industry saying, “It is by now very clear that this virus has had a disproportionate impact on communities of color. We have also seen outbreaks spread quickly in crowded housing, and in settings where workers live together and work in close quarters.”

The order contains several provisions.

Housing operators must identify one or more individuals who will be responsible for identifying appropriate physical distancing and sanitation measures and ensuring that such measures are implemented, including planning and implementing housing operation activities so that unrelated occupants will not need to be within 6 feet of each other.

The order claims that having a limited number of toilet facilities can encourage crowding, which in turn promotes the spread of COVID-19. Because of this, portable toilets or chemical toilets must be sanitized three times a day, and plumbed common-use toilet facilities must be sanitized at least twice a day, or more often, if necessary.

Each sleeping room without double bunk beds must have at least 50 square feet of floor space per occupant. Where there are double bunk beds for related individuals, provide 40 square feet per occupant. Do not use triple bunks, and do not allow the use of double bunk beds by unrelated individuals. Beds and cots must be spaced at least six feet apart between frames in all directions and arranged so that occupants sleep head to toe, or beds and cots must be separated by a bed length, floor to near ceiling temporary non-permeable barrier.

Housing operators must clean the facilities' high-contact areas and equipment before each occupancy. They must also ensure that high-touch or high-contact surfaces and areas in common use facilities are sanitized at least two times daily.

This Executive Order remains in effect until April 30, 2021.

Shortly after the Governor issued the executive order, the Oregon Farm Bureau expressed dismay at the Governor’s decision to release a last-minute Executive Order extending the rules for employer-provided agricultural housing and shocked that the Governor would add criminal penalties to the enforcement of these rules.

Adoption of the original temporary COVID-19 rules for agriculture allowed no meaningful public input and resulted from an activist petition, not from any public health or scientific experts.

The Farm Bureau points out that there has not been an identified “outbreak” of COVID-19 in agricultural housing since the beginning of the pandemic, even before the temporary rules were adopted. OR-OSHA’s data shows that of the 11,617 complaints made to the agency, and subsequent violations found, agriculture represents only 33. Almost all of these cases were minor, such as not having enough posters displayed. The Oregon Health Authority has made it clear that social gatherings off-site are the major driver of continued spread of COVID-19, not on-farm employment and housing.

They note that outbreaks are actively occurring off-site in community-based and other housing. Because of bed-spacing, prohibition of bunk beds, and other technical requirements, the temporary rules reduced the amount of safe on-farm housing and pushed employees out into unregulated environments. Farmworker advocates acknowledge that community-based and off-site housing doesn’t require social distancing, yet this housing has not been the subject of increased regulation, scrutiny, or criminal penalties. The Oregon Farm Bureau says that it agrees with the need to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in housing, but believes there is a way to protect employees without displacing them.

They also say that lack of public comment on the order also subverts the requirements of the Oregon Administrative Procedures Act.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-10-23 18:07:28

Last Update: 2020-10-23 20:16:50