Labour management

The harvesting organizational management has the following structure:


Brief labor instructions

The mushroom harvesting technologist works in close contact with the head technologist and the production manager. His job includes:

• the prognostication and estimation of the future crop;
• planning and distribution of jobs that have to do with harvesting;
• controlling the provision of pickers with necessary implement and packages;
• controlling the work of foremen and pickers, and the working efficiency;
• controlling the quality of the product;
• making sure the rules of sanitation and hygiene of the industry are complied;
• keeping the record of the jobs carried out, and the mushrooms harvested;
• teaching the pickers the correct way of harvesting, and also working with new pickers;
• the stimulation and punishment of employees if necessary.

Foremen are chosen from among the pickers. Generally, they’re the most experienced and the best pickers, who have managerial abilities and can get along with other people. Their job includes:

• the organization of team work, distributing the pickers and supplying them with implement and packages;
• the maintenance of harvesting machinery and work efficiency, and also the discharge of duty of every picker, sorting the mushrooms, cleaning the beds etc;
• the timely supplying of the technologist with data about problem areas, the presence of pests and diseases and disruptions of the working conditions.

Each one of the pickers has an individual number, with which they mark the boxes of mushrooms they’ve picked (or they put their number inside the box). Due to this, it’s easier to keep record of the harvested mushrooms and to control the efficiency and quality of harvesting of every picker.

Every picker is in charge of his/her boxes of harvested mushrooms, if you drop them down, it will be taken into account when you’re paid. If some one else dropped your box from the rack, the foreman or technologist have the right to include it in your record card on mushroom harvesting.

Labour management

Entrance to the growing rooms should be done in determined order. The older the room is, the more possibility there is for the presence of pest and diseases. Generally, the mushroom harvesting begins in the newest growing rooms and gradually moves to the older rooms (from "clean" to "dirty"). This is one of the reasons of the necessity for beginning the work in clean clothes.

Moving from room to room
The remaining pickers and duty personnel must collect mushroom remains and clean the floors of passageways and underneath the shelves. All rubbish must be thrown into refuse bins, and not swept into the waste hole

Exiting the growing rooms
Exiting the growing room is allowed only during break or at specified time. At exiting the growing rooms, the pickers must bring out either buckets with waste, or boxes filled with mushrooms. The lunch break is at strongly defined time, during the lunch break, no one remains in the growing room.

Improper harvesting
At improper harvesting and inaccurate execution of the foreman’s or technologist’s instructions, you’ll have to return to the growing room and redo your work even if the whole team has moved to the next growing room.

Beginning of the working day
All pickers must come to work at a specific time without tardiness. No one must enter the growing room without a technologist or a foreman.

Finishing the work
At the end of the working day, the racks and step-ladders must be thoroughly cleaned. Waste baskets and all working implements must also be cleaned.

An average rate of harvesting
15 kg of mushrooms per hour;
100 - 150 kg of mushrooms per day.

Workweek
A usual workweek includes Saturday and Sunday, if there are any mushrooms to be harvested. Often, the work has to be done on holidays. Days off are given according the present chart or when there are no mushrooms. In case not all the personnel is needed for harvesting, only the ones who wish do the work. When those who wish are invited on days of small assemblages, the pickers that work best of all, are preferred.

Leave
Is given according to the schedule worked up by the foremen and a technologist, taking into account the production needs.

Discharge
Any employee that has been noticed stealing or in a state of alcoholic or narcotic inebriation will be immediately discharged. Any fight or dispute leads to an immediate discharge.