Virginia § 60.2-201 - Agricultural labor

§ 60.2-201. Agricultural labor

A. The term "agricultural labor" includes all service performed:

1. On a farm, in the employ of any person, in connection with cultivating the soil, or in connection with raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training, and management of livestock, bees, poultry, and fur-bearing animals and wildlife.

2. In the employ of the owner or tenant or other operator of a farm, in connection with the operation, management, conservation, improvement, or maintenance of such farm and its tools and equipment, or in salvaging timber or clearing land of brush and other debris left by a hurricane, if the major part of such service is performed on a farm.

3. In connection with the production or harvesting of any commodity defined as an agricultural commodity in 12 U.S.C. § 1141 j of the Federal Agricultural Marketing Act, or in connection with the ginning of cotton, or in connection with the operation or maintenance of ditches, canals, reservoirs, or waterways not owned or operated for profit used exclusively for supplying and storing water for farming purposes.

4. a. In the employ of the operator of a farm in handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing, or delivering to storage or to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, in its unmanufactured state, any such agricultural or horticultural commodity; but only if such operator produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which such service is performed;

b. In the employ of a group of operators of farms (or a cooperative organization of which such operators are members) in the performance of service described in subdivision 4 a of this subsection, but only if such operators produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which such service is performed;

c. The provisions of subdivisions 4 a and 4 b of this section shall not be deemed to be applicable with respect to service performed in connection with commercial canning or commercial freezing or in connection with any agricultural or horticultural commodity after its delivery to a terminal market for distribution for consumption.

5. On a farm operated for profit if such service is not in the course of the employer's trade or business or is domestic service in a private home of the employer.

B. As used in this section, the term "farm" includes stock, dairy, poultry, fruit, fur-bearing animal and truck farms, plantations, ranches, nurseries, ranges, greenhouses or other similar structures used primarily for the raising of agricultural or horticultural commodities and orchards.

Code 1950, § 60-3; 1968, c. 738, § 60.1-3; 1971, Ex. Sess., c. 235; 1972, c. 764; 1986, c. 480.