Policies and Regulations Affecting the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Workforce - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 311

compliance visit on a vessel, OSHA inspectors do not determine whether life rafts
conform to CFIVSA regulations, which are subject to USCG authority, but will
examine such issues as matters of fall-protection safety.
A complex set of occupational safety standards apply to the fishing industry,
reflecting in part, the large variance in types of commercial fishing vessels. Regu-
lations regarding specific types of lifesaving and other equipment, training, and
workplace protective standards are determined by a vessel's size or the number of
onboard personnel. Thus, shorter vessels or those carrying few workers are not
held to the same standard as larger vessels with more workers.
Commercial fishing boat and diving operations with 10 or fewer employees
have been exempted from OSHA safety inspections, as in agriculture, by an an-
nual appropriations rider in Congress (Noll, 1994). Also statutorily exempt from
the FLSA minimum wage requirement is “any employee employed in the catching,
taking, propagating, harvesting, cultivating, or farming of any kind of fish, shellfish,
crustacea, sponges, seaweeds, or other aquatic forms of animal and vegetable life,
or in the first processing, canning or packing such marine products at sea as an
incident to, or in conjunction with, such fishing operations, including the going
to and returning from work and loading and unloading when performed by any
such employee . . . ” 11
Forestry industry workers are subject to the OSHA act 12 and the FLSA. But
forestry and logging workers employed by a firm with eight or fewer employees are
exempt by statute from the overtime pay requirements of the FLSA. 13 States with
major logging industries also have substantial regulatory and oversight responsibil-
ities, as approved under agreement with OSHA. A number of states—for example,
Idaho, Oregon, and Washington—have developed their own safety standards for
forestry and logging workers. In fact, Oregon's logging code was established well
before enactment of the OSHA act in 1970.
An unusual aspect of forest work is the contracting of some activities by
private-sector employers and the USDA Forest Service to labor contractors. The
employer of record in such a circumstance is often a very small business with small
assets, if any. The vastness of forest activities makes it difficult to regulate or provide
timely oversight of them. Many of the tasks performed by the workers are identi-
cal with agricultural tasks: planting, thinning, and weeding. MSAWPA regulation
therefore applies to contract forest workers.
11 FLSA, Sec. 13(a)(5).
12 Cf. 29 CFR Part 1910.266.
13 FLSA, Sec. 13(b)(28).