Opinion ID: 656580
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Application of the Agricultural Exemption to Tiller Helicopter's Employees

Text: 33 The parties do not dispute that the employees on whose behalf the Secretary brought this action each spend part of their time employed in primary agriculture, i.e. cultivating the soil on farms of client farmers through the application of insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizers to fields and crops. 7 The dispute arises over the time that the Tiller Helicopter employees spend at the Tiller Helicopter farm loading the tanks and trailers necessary for spraying operations and flushing the tanks and trailers in preparation for the next day's work and the time they spend on public roads traveling to and from the clients' farms. 34 Asserting that secondary agricultural tasks must be performed either by a farmer or on the farm to which they are incidental, the Secretary argues that these tasks performed by Tiller Helicopter employees are not exempt because they are not performed by farmers or on the farms of the client farmers and are not the type of off-farm tasks that can be regarded as performed on a farm because Tiller Helicopter employees spend more than a small amount of time performing these off-farm tasks. Appellees respond that the employees are covered by the agricultural exemption because Tiller is a farmer and because the employees in question perform their off-farm tasks either on Tiller's farm or on roads en route to the farms of Tiller Helicopter's clients. 35 Based on the principles established in Farmers Reservoir, Waialua, and Osceola Farms we conclude that Tiller Helicopter employees are not employed by a farmer and that the tasks they perform on Tiller's farm are not performed on a farm for purposes of the agricultural exemption but that the secondary agricultural tasks performed by these employees are nevertheless exempt from the FLSA's overtime provisions because they are incidental to the primary agricultural activities that the employees perform on the farms of Tiller Helicopter's clients. 36 1. Tiller Helicopter employees are not employed by a farmer and tasks performed on Tiller's farm are not performed on a farm for purposes of the agricultural exemption. 37 Although the parties do not dispute that Tiller himself is a farmer and that the employees at issue load and flush tanks and trailers on Tiller's farm, these employees are employed by Tiller Helicopter, an independently organized business that owns no land, raises no crops, and performs several different types of services, some of which are not agricultural in nature, for example, lawn spraying. These employees are therefore not employed by a farmer for purposes of the agricultural exemption. Farmers Reservoir, 337 U.S. at 763, 69 S.Ct. at 1278; 29 C.F.R. § 780.137. Moreover, because the secondary agricultural tasks of loading and flushing the tanks and trailers performed on Tiller's farm are performed in conjunction with agricultural activities conducted on the farms of Tiller Helicopter's clients rather than the agricultural activities conducted on Tiller's own farm, the fact that the work is performed on Tiller's farm does not mean that it is performed on a farm for purposes of the agricultural exemption. Farmers Reservoir, 337 U.S. at 766 n. 15, 69 S.Ct. 1280 n. 15, citing Bowie, 117 F.2d 11; Waialua, 349 U.S. at 262-263, 75 S.Ct. at 724-725; 29 C.F.R. § 780.141. 38 2. Secondary agricultural tasks performed by Tiller Helicopter employees are exempt because they are incidental to primary agricultural activities that the employees perform on a farm. 39 Our conclusion that the affected employees are not employed by a farmer and that much of the work at issue is not performed on a farm does not end our analysis because, as the Supreme Court explained in Farmers Reservoir, the question here is whether the occupation of the field employees of the ... company can itself be termed agriculture. 337 U.S. at 760, 69 S.Ct. at 1277. Because the Tiller Helicopter employees' tasks of applying herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers to the fields of client farmers fall within the definition of agriculture adopted by Congress in 29 U.S.C. § 203(f), we conclude that the disputed off-farm activities are exempt because they are incidental to the primary agricultural tasks that the employees perform on clients' farms. This result is supported by the legislative history of the FLSA, our holding in Osceola Farms, and the Secretary's own regulations. 40 The legislative history of the FLSA that we have chronicled above reflects Congress's unequivocal intent to exempt independent contractors who travel from farm to farm assisting farmers in primary agricultural activities from the scope of the FLSA by including them within the agricultural exemption. Like the wheat threshers and peanut harvesters discussed in the congressional debates, Tiller Helicopter employees travel from farm to farm assisting farmers in the primary agricultural task of cultivating the soil. In his own regulations the Secretary acknowledges that 41 [t]he legislative history makes it plain that ... language was particularly included [in the FLSA] to make certain that independent contractors such as threshers of wheat, who travel around from farm to farm to assist farmers in what is recognized as a purely agricultural task ... should be included within the definition of agricultural employees. 42 29 C.F.R. § 780.128. 43 Recognizing that aerial spraying operations are analogous to wheat threshing operations, and that aerial spraying necessarily involves off-farm activities that fall within the agricultural exemption, the Secretary has exempted by regulation pilots and flagmen employed by aerial spraying contractors and decreed that off-farm work performed by such employees will not preclude them from coming within the ambit of the agricultural exemption. 44 Pilots and flagmen engaged in the aerial dusting and spraying of crops are examples of the types of employees of independent contractors who may be considered employed in practices performed on a farm. ... Even though an employee may work on several farms during a workweek, he is regarded as employed on a farm for the entire workweek if his work on each farm pertains solely to farming operations on that farm. The fact that a minor and incidental part of the work of such an employee occurs off the farm will not affect this conclusion. Thus, an employee may spend a small amount of time within the workweek in transporting necessary equipment for work to be done on farms. 45