This past week, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA) revised the hours of service (HOS) regulations to provide greater flexibility for drivers subject to those rules. In the final rule, the FMSCA made four significant changes:

• The on-duty limits for short-haul operations will increase from 12 to 14 hours and from 100 air-miles to 150.
• The adverse driving provision will extend the driving window two hours if the driver encounters adverse driving conditions.
• Now requires a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving time (instead of on-duty time) and allows an on-duty/not driving period to qualify as the required break
• The 30-minute break provision will be modified to require the break after eight hours of consecutive driving time (instead of on-duty time) and allows an on-duty/not driving period to qualify as the required break.

“These new common sense rules will give truckers more options for planning their days,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said. “They will help drivers reach their destination safely without feeling like they have to race against the clock to comply with federal mandates. They also will help truckers get the rest they need when they need it. When safety rules make sense, drivers are better able to comply and that benefits everyone.”   The final rule is expected to be published in the Federal Register this week, the agency said. The rule will go into effect 120 days after it is published to allow ELD manufacturers to implement programming changes. Depending on when the rule is published, the changes could go into effect as soon as Sept. 15.

The accounting firm of Moss Adams is hosting a webcast on Thursday, May 21st, at 2:00 pm on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).   This webcast will provide insight into PPP loans for organizations that both DID and DID NOT receive funds. We’ll provide an overview of cash relief options available as well as alternative financing options you may want to explore. Additionally, we’ll touch on special considerations for employee benefits related to sick leave and family leave. More specifically, we’ll cover the following:

• Determining and maximizing PPP loan forgiveness, including what expenditures “count”, applicable period, and employee considerations
• Minimizing and deferring expenses, whether you received a PPP loan or not, including major financing options post-CARES Act
• Tax credits
• Families First Sick Leave and Family Medical Leave Act issues
• Raising additional funds during the pandemic
• Other business considerations for cash relief
• Come prepared with questions as there will be plenty of time for Q&A.

Presenters

Eric Krienert, Partner – Moss Adams
Eric is director of Agribusiness Programs at Moss Adams. He has worked in public accounting since 1997. He is experienced in tax planning and consulting for large partnerships and corporations in the food and agriculture industries, specializing in cooperatives. He provides services related to patronage philosophy and formulating patronage allocation programs based on book, tax, and hybrid programs; equity planning; mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and other combinations; nonqualified equities; and domestic manufacturing deduction and taxation.

K-Deep Dhaliwal, Partner – Moss Adams
K-Deep has provided auditing and consulting services to food processing and agriculture companies since 2005 and is the regional industry group leader for the firm’s agribusiness practice. His focus includes agricultural marketing and supply cooperatives; food processors and marketers; manufacturing and distribution; citrus growers; row crops and permanent crops; vineyard operations; fresh fruit packing and marketing; and wine production and distribution.  He is the past president of theNational Society of Accountants for Cooperatives (NSAC) Far Western Chapter.

Ashley Jacobsen, Senior Manager – Moss Adams
Ashley has practiced public accounting since 2003. She leads audits for privately held, middle market companies in the manufacturing, food processing, and agribusiness industries. She works with her clients to address their key business issues and provides best practices for financial reporting, corporate governance, and industry trends.

To register for this important webinar, please use the following link:

Registration link: https://mossadamsllp.webex.com/mossadamsllp/j.php?RGID=r56b60cd2bea6f430dc309dd1d03270cf

Are you need of general protection face masks?  How about masks made from Supima Cotton?  MRO Supply out of Los Angeles is selling masks made from Supima cotton for $5 each plus tax and shipping.  They are manufactured by a company out of Los Angeles, so it is California Grown and American Made! Here is the link to the company’s website for the mask:
https://www.mrosupply.com/safety/personal-protective-equipment/respiratory-protection/5909596_supima-mask-white_mro-supply/

Please note:  These are NOT N-95 masks.

• Antiquated, lengthy language replaced “minorities” with a more modern rendering: “an individual who is a member of an underrepresented protected class covered by [FEHA]”
• Amends age discrimination to apply to individuals age 40 and older

• Circumstances clarified regarding permitted pre-employment questions relating to the physical fitness, medical condition, physical condition, or medical history of applicants
• Clarification that an application request for information related to schedule and availability for work may not be used to ascertain an applicant’s religious creed, disability, or medical condition
  • Ex: “Other than time off for reasons related to your religion, a disability, or a medical condition, are you available to work the proposed schedule?”
• Renders online application technology that limits or screens out applicants based upon age a potential FEHA violation
  • Must include a mechanism for the applicant to request an accommodation
  • Clarifies that the prohibition against applications separated or coded includes both manual or electronic separating and coding
  • Entry of age in order to access or complete an online application or the use of drop-down menus that contain age-based cut-off dates now prohibited

• Business necessity affirmative defense properly rendered (i.e. “job-related and consistent with business necessity”), including in the context of layoffs or salary reduction efforts
• A plaintiff may now show that “an alternative practice could accomplish the business purpose equally well with a lesser discriminatory impact.”

• Examples of unlawful requirements regarding age discrimination in recruitment: maximum experience limitation, requirement that candidates be ‘digital natives’[1], requirement that candidates maintain a college-affiliated email address
• Eliminates the need to infer intent when analyzing the lawfulness of advertisements
  • Examples of unlawful language: “…young, college student, recent college graduate, boy, girl, or other terms that imply a preference for employees under the age of 40.”
  • Examples of prohibited inquiries: “requests for age, date of birth, or graduation dates, excepting where age is bona fide occupational qualification.”

This week, Cal/OSHA has released new guidance and checklists for Agriculture and Livestock, and for Food Packing and Processing.  This new guidance is intended to support a safe, clean environment for workers in these areas.  The update now mandates a “written worksite specific plan” for these operations to protect workers.  Included in the guidance is information on what is required in the written plan, training topics, individual control measures, cleaning and disinfecting protocols, and physical distancing guidelines.  To assist our members in this area, staff is currently developing a template plan, inspection checklist, training materials and developing a supervisorial training webinar the Association will be conducting in the very near future.

Here are the new Guidance Documents and General Checklists:

• COVID-19 Industry Guidance: Agriculture and Livestock
• Cal/OSHA COVID-19 General Checklist for Agriculture and Livestock Employers
• COVID-19 Industry Guidance: Food Packing and Processing
• Cal/OSHA COVID-19 General Checklist for Meat, Dairy, or Produce Packing or Processing

Stay tuned for more information!

1.  The Executive Order is retroactive to March 19 and extends for 60 days from today’s announcement.
2.  Employees working outside the home that test positive for COVID-19 or are diagnosed positive by a physician or surgeon licensed by the California Medical Board within the time period of the Executive Order are presumed to have contracted the disease at the workplace. If it is a diagnosis, the diagnosis must be confirmed by a positive test within 30 days.
3.  The presumption applies to all employees directed to work outside the home by their employer. It is not limited to essential employees.
4.  The presumption is rebuttable by the employer, however, the time for the employer to deny a claim is reduced from the current 90 days to 30 days.
5.  The rebuttable presumption is in effect for 60 days from May 6, 2020, but coverage continues after the 60 day expiration date.
6.  Temporary disability payments begin only after the employee uses all other state or federal sick leave benefits.
7.  Re-testing is required every 15 days during first 45 days of temporary disability payments.
8.  The Department of Industrial Relations will not require or accept a “no beneficiary” death benefit.

Due to the ongoing situation with COVID-19 and the uncertainty surrounding the end of the “Shelter in Place” order, the Board of Directors of the California Cotton Ginners and Growers has voted unanimously to cancel the 2020 Annual Meeting scheduled for May 13th in Visalia.  The annual financial audit, yearly financials and board actions will be considered at the June 3rd Board Meeting in Fresno.   Details on that meeting will be forthcoming when the COVID-19 crisis eventually comes to a close.

The Association joined several other agricultural organizations in expressing opposition to a potential Governor’s Executive Order to address COVID-19 under workers compensation that could place a massive economic burden on California businesses even in cases where it had nothing to do with work.  We are hearing that Governor Newsom is considering the following:

1) Creating a conclusive presumption – i.e., no ability to dispute that an injury was work related – for anyone deemed “essential” on the attached, very expansive list applying during the COVID-19 response time, including all farm workers, restaurant workers, workers in food processing, workers in transport, laundry services, cannabis shops, and health care workers. This would allow millions of workers in the state of California to get workers’ compensation funds from employers regardless of whether they contracted COVID-19 at work or otherwise.

2) Extending the definition of an injury to “exposure” to COVID-19 even without symptoms or actual illness.  This would create payments from business for individuals with no injury at all.

3) Adding additional costs to business for temporary housing to quarantine workers recommended for quarantine, regardless of actual illness.

4) The ability to have a presumption of injury arise, without any formal testing, if a doctor of any type able to treat in workers’ compensation (chiropractors, orthopedists, podiatrists), concludes someone has COVID-19.  This is very similar to the primary treating presumption that tripled rates for business in the early 2000 period.

Unfortunately, one company, State Compensation Insurance Fund, has already adopted some of these provisions in advance of any directive.  Nonetheless, the Association remains opposed and will continue to fight this and other regulatory burdens being place on the agricultural industry even during these unbelievably critical times.

The Association joined a coalition of 150 organizations representing water and agricultural interests in the western U.S. in urging Congress and President Trump to address aging Western water infrastructure as further measures are considered to help the U.S. economy recover from the ongoing coronavirus crisis.  “The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the importance of safety and stability provided by domestic food production,” the groups stated in separate letters to Congress and the President. “As this crisis has pointed out, a stable domestic food supply is essential and of national security interest. For farmers and ranchers to survive, and for food to continue to be produced here in the American West, a stable water supply is a necessary part of any conversation about our national food security.”  President Trump has stated his belief that renewed efforts to meet the systemic infrastructure demands of the nation will be an important step in combating the long-term impacts of the pandemic.  “We strongly agree,” the organizations stated in the letter to the White House. “In particular, we urge you to advance critically needed investments that address the shortcomings of our aging Western water infrastructure.”  Existing water infrastructure in the West needs rehabilitation and improvement. Most of the federally funded water infrastructure projects that benefit the large cities, rural communities and small farms in the West were built more than 50 years ago. As hydrological conditions in the West change and populations continue to expand, failure to address water security has become increasingly critical.  “Failing to improve water infrastructure and develop supplies will inevitably result in additional conflict as pressure grows to ‘solve’ urban and environmental water shortages,” the groups stated in the letter to Congress. “Moving water away from Western irrigated agriculture will surely contribute to the decline of our national food security.”  The coalition letters emphasize that water conservation, water recycling, watershed management, conveyance, desalination, water transfers, groundwater storage and surface storage are all needed in a diversified management portfolio.

“If and when additional infrastructure funding is discussed as part of a larger economic stimulus package, we need your help to ensure that federal dollars flow to the water infrastructure needs mentioned above,” the letters conclude.

As part of President Trump and Secretary Perdue’s April 17^th announcement of a $19 billion Coronavirus Farm Assistance Program, USDA today announced that it is exercising authority under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to purchase and distribute up to $3 billion of agricultural products to those in need. USDA will partner with regional and local distributors, whose workforce has been significantly impacted by the closure of many restaurants, hotels, and other food service entities, to purchase $3 billion in fresh produce, dairy, and meat products. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will procure an estimated $100 million per month in fresh fruits and vegetables, $100 million per month in a variety of dairy products and $100 million per month in meat products to provide a pre-approved box of fresh produce, dairy, and meat products to food banks and other non-profits serving Americans in need.

USDA will issue a solicitation in the next two weeks to invite proposals from offerors to supply commodity boxes to non-profit organizations, identified by the offeror, on a mutually agreeable, recurring schedule. USDA will award contracts for the purchase of the agricultural products, the assembly of commodity boxes and delivery to identified non-profit organizations that can receive, store and distribute food items.

An informational webinar for interested participants will be held at 2 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 21, 2020, to provide an overview of the program and instructions for submitting offers. Register in advance for this webinar here: https://www.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_hDiBdM_aSYmWps0RiO-UAg. If you are unable to participate in the webinar, a recording will be available.

Email questions to USDAFoodBoxDistributionProgram@usda.gov. To receive updates by e-mail, subscribe online by visiting: “Stay up to date on USDA Food Purchases” available on the AMS Commodity Procurement website.