FELS Training Services

  • Supervisor Training
  • Harassment Prevention Training
  • Safety Training

Supervisor Training

FELS’ LMCs offer a wide range of on-site training, whether it’s to enhance the skills of your supervisors or foremen, give safety training, or help with the do’s and don’ts during a union campaign.

FELS trainers are skilled and highly trained (and certified in many areas) to manage your various training needs. Providing on-the-job training requires huge amounts of organization, education, skill and time This can be a problem to an employer who wants the benefits of a trained and qualified workforce without breaking the bank.

FELS provides a cost-effective solution!

With more than 25 years of experience and an extensive an extensive training library, FELS is often a perfect fit. And, because training is on-site and bilingual, the employer receives immediate attention to problems as they surface. Supervisor Training Employers are becoming aware of the important role their supervisors play in the company s success. Since the supervisor directly affects employee attitudes, a poor supervisor can quickly cause many problems. Likewise, a supervisor with sharpened skills can be an invaluable asset.

FELS supervisor training covers:

  • Giving instructions
  • Disciplinary techniques
  • Dealing with the difficult employee
  • Conducting interviews
  • Setting a good example
  • Safety issues
  • Record keeping
  • Motivating employees
  • Body language and how it might conflict with a verbal message
  • Job performance evaluation
  • Documentation
  • Improving communications
  • Injury and Illness Prevention
  • Job instruction training
  • Safety

Harassment Prevention Training for Supervisors & Employees

Employers with 5 or more employees are required to provide their all employees with sexual harassment prevention training. The training must be performed every two years; for supervisors training must be at least two hours of classroom or other effective interactive training; training for non-supervisors must be one hour in length.

Farm Employers Labor Service (FELS) is available to perform this required training in English and Spanish. Contact us at (800) 753-9073 for rates and more information.

Each session will cover these topics:

  • Information and practical guidance on the federal and state laws prohibiting sexual and general harassment, laws requiring prevention against harassment, and laws requiring appropriate employer response to harassment;
  • Remedies available to victims of harassment and sexual harassment; and
  • Practical examples aimed at instructing supervisors in the prevention of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.

Send for more information to:

Farm Employers Labor Service
2600 River Plaza Drive
Sacramento, CA 95833

Or call (800) 753-9073.

Sexual Harassment FAQ

Here are some common questions & answers on this topic.

 Coverage: Q: Do part-time or seasonal employees count toward the 5 employee coverage threshold?
A: Yes.

A regulation promulgated by the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC) defines “regularly employing” in the context of discrimination in employment as “employing five or more individuals for each working day in any twenty consecutive calendar weeks in the current calendar year or preceding calendar year.”

The California Supreme Court ruled in a 1992 case, Robinson v. Fair Employment and Housing Commission, that all persons whose names appear on an employer’s payroll are to be counted as employees for each week that their names appear there, even if they do not work every day of the week.

Multi-Employers: Q: Is an employer that by itself does not meet the coverage threshold nonetheless covered because it is related to one or more other employers that individually or collectively do meet that threshold?

A: It depends on the nature of the relationship.

Where it can, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing follows federal case law in construing coverage under the state law, the Fair Employment and Housing Act. In Morgan v. Safeway Stores, Inc., the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared that it treats two entities as one if they have: interrelated operations; common management; centralized control of labor relations; and common ownership or financial control.

Despite the coverage threshold, many practitioners and business groups recommend that employers perform anti-harassment training no matter how many employees they may have. Whether a company is small or large, one of the best defenses to a harassment charge is that is has a good training program for supervisors. And even before this new requirement was enacted, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s guidelines included supervisor training.

 Qualifications of the Trainer: Q: Who can perform the supervisor training? Does the person have to have a certification?

A: The law says the training “shall be presented by trainers or educators with knowledge and expertise in the prevention of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.” The law does not require the trainer to have a specific certification or profession.

On the other hand, the trainer can’t just read some sexual harassment material to become qualified to perform the training.

When choosing a trainer, employers should remember that a trainer’s qualifications will be important if the adequacy of the training is later scrutinized. Further, some courts have determined that it is important for trainers to understand the complex body of harassment and discrimination laws and keep up-to-date with new cases that may change the interpretations of these laws. Thus, it is crucial for trainers to be able to give practical and legally accurate responses to questions raised by the participants.

The cliché “the proof is in the pudding” is apt here: If, after being trained, supervisors can discuss and put into practice the key elements of sexual-harassment prevention, then the training in all likelihood will be deemed to have met the standards.

 What Should Employers Do? Here are some things to do to prepare for the new training requirement:

  • Determine whether your company is covered by counting employees and keep an up-to-date log
  • Develop a tickler system to alert you to when training is due
  • Research training options, including outside trainers and in-house resources
  • Develop a record system to track training
  • Update employment policies and procedures to include mandatory training requirements for supervisors
  • Review the new requirements with managers and other key employees
  • Budget for required training
  • Training should include harassment based on all protected characteristics (e.g., race, gender identity, national origin, religion), not just harassment based on sex

Safety Training

FELS offers a wide range of on-site safety training, maybe more than might come immediately to mind. When FELS provides the safety training for your business, you can be confident your workforce not only enjoys the training, but most importantly understands the message (since it s bilingual!)

Companies that take safety training seriously experience fewer time-loss injuries and accidents and pay lower workers compensation premiums. The key to success is to either develop your own attention-grabbing program that engages the workers, or use the LMC service to do it for you.

FELS safety training covers:

  • Heat Illness Prevention, Wildfire Smoke Protection, Night Work Safety and other general and task-specific safety training
  • Pesticide Training for Fieldworkers and Handlers
  • Respiratory Protection
  • Hazard Communication
  • First Aid/CPR
  • Violence & Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
  • Supervisor’s responsibilities
  • Back Injury Prevention
  • Tractor and Ag Equipment
  • Forklift Operator Safety
  • Pesticide-Field and Handler
  • Harvest Safety And much more

Training Fees

The hourly rates are:

  • Consultation rates are $175 per hour, or $225 per hour during an Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) or National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) action, e.g. Notice of Intent to Organize (NO), Notice of Intent to Take Access (NA), or Recognition for Certification (RC)]
  • Minimum Hours: Five hour minimum or a three-hour minimum when the LMC is providing services within the LMC’s normal service area.
  • Travel Expenses: Travel time rate is $60 per hour. Travel time will start from the LMC’s home and end upon arrival at your facilities. The travel time will resume again upon the return of the LMC to his or her home. Vehicle mileage rate is 75¢ per mile.
  • Deposit: A deposit of 50% of the estimate cost of anticipated services.

Annual Service Agreement

The Annual Service Agreement is based on a calendar year and is automatically renewed each calendar year unless you notify FELS at least 15 days before the last day of a calendar year. The annual fee for these services, which can be payable annually or quarterly is based on the number of service visits you desire from the LMC and calculated on the percentage of the LMC’s time in the coming year you and the LMC determine you will need and use . A service visit is approximately a half-day of the LMC’s time, including travel and preparation time. When a “loss time event” occurs, each participant in the LMC program will share in the event on a prorated basis.