Hot Goods Dropped & Idaho Quarantine

Hot Goods Dropped & Idaho Quarantine

Hot Goods Dropped & Idaho Quarantine. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Charges in the "hot goods" issue in Oregon have been dropped by the Department of Labor. The Department will return money previously paid by Oregon blueberry growers and drop lawsuits accusing them of "hot goods" labor law violations. The Ag Network's KayDee Gilkey has more.

GILKEY: The Department of Labor will be returning some $220-thousand dollars of alleged back wages and penalties after two companies, Pan-American Berry Growers and B&G Ditchen agreed to the settlement so the Department of Labor would remove the "hot goods" objections. The "hot goods" provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act, lets DOL bar an employer from selling or shipping goods out of state that were made by workers that the employer has wronged. The agency will also pay an additional $30,000 to each of the two farms over the issue. The farms have agreed to withdraw their counterclaims against DOL with neither party admitting to any liability under the deal.

The Idaho State Department of Agriculture has established a quarantine zone in Canyon County, covering an area of approximately six miles around a site near Parma, Idaho where avian influenza was confirmed in a backyard flock of chickens. The quarantine restricts the movement of eggs, poultry or poultry products within and out of the identified zone with exemptions made for operations that obtain special permits and meet specific criteria. There is no immediate public health concern due to the avian influenza virus detected.  Avian influenza does not affect poultry meat or egg products, which remain safe to eat when properly cooked.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.

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