The California Agricultural Labor Relations Board has filed a petition for injunctive relief against a Ventura County strawberry farming operation alleging unfair labor practices and seeking to stop the respondent from interfering with employees’ free exercise of rights under the labor code. State v. Montalvo Farms, LLC, No. 56-2012-00416985 (Cal. Super. Ct., Ventura Cty., filed May 9, 2012). According to the petition, the farm hires Mixteco farmworkers, most of whom speak neither English nor Spanish. Due to language constraints, these workers allegedly endure “worse working conditions than other agricultural workers, including pervasive undercounting of their strawberry boxes picked, supervisors who charge for rides to work, injuries on the job that are ignored, and outright discrimination due to their inability to speak Spanish fluently.” One Mixteco worker, who is fluent in Mixteco and Spanish, apparently worked at the farm for several years and became a spokesperson for the Mixteco workers. He…
Category Archives Issue 441
A federal court in Pennsylvania has denied the motion for summary judgment filed by a Burger King franchisee sued for violating the civil rights of an African-American truck driver who alleged that restaurant employees spit in his sandwich before serving it. Goodwin v. Fast Food Enters. #3, LLP, No. 10-23 (W.D. Pa., decided May 16, 2012). This motion was based on the assertion that the plaintiff would be unable to establish that the defendant is liable for the “allegedly discriminatory actions of the employees” and a request to strike the plaintiff’s request for punitive damages. In a previous motion, also decided against the franchisee, the court determined that “there were triable issues of material fact concerning whether Goodwin’s sandwich had been spat into and whether the incident, if it occurred, was racially motivated.” According to the court, the doctrine of respondeat superior, may not, as argued by the defendant, apply in…
A federal court in California has dismissed with prejudice a putative class action filed in March 2012 against the companies that make a line of SoBe® beverages known as 0 Calories Lifewater®. Hairston v. S. Beach Beverage Co., Inc., No. 12-1429 (C.D. Cal., decided May 18, 2012). Further details about the case appear in Issue 429 of this Update. According to the court, state-law consumer-fraud claims based on the use of fruit names to describe the different Lifewater flavors and the use of common vitamin names instead of the vitamins’ chemical names are preempted by federal law which allows both types of labeling. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, said the court, “explicitly permit manufacturers ‘to use the name and images of a fruit on a product’s packaging to describe the characterizing flavor of the product even where the product does not contain any of that fruit, or contains no fruit…
A federal court in Kentucky has determined that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is not entitled to information about the medical examinations of Nestlé Prepared Foods employees in relation to a claim by one former employee that he was fired due to “genetic information” discrimination. EEOC v. Nestlé Prepared Foods, No. 11-359 (E.D. Ky., decided May 23, 2012). So ruling, the court rejected in part a magistrate judge’s recommended disposition and denied EEOC’s motion for enforcement of a subpoena. According to the court, the information sought was irrelevant because there was no evidence that any other employee had alleged violations of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000 0ff-1. While acknowledging that EEOC ordinarily “has broad access to evidence that is relevant to a charge being investigated,” the court was “not persuaded that it has free reign to conduct a broad, company-wide investigation based upon a single…
An administrative law judge (ALJ) has upheld some of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) allegations that POM Wonderful violated federal law by making deceptive claims in some advertisements that the company’s pomegranate juice and related products treat, prevent, or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction. In re: POM Wonderful LLC, No. 9344 (FTC, decided May 17, 2012). The ALJ’s initial decision is deemed the decision of the FTC 30 days after it is served on the parties, unless appealed or placed on FTC’s docket on its own motion. According to the ALJ, some, but not all, of POM’s ads could be interpreted as containing an “implied claim” that the company’s products treat, prevent or reduce the risk of some diseases and that “these effects were clinically proven.” The ALJ also determined that (i) “the appropriate level of substantiation for claims that a product treats, prevents,…
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has fined a Kensington, South Australia, olive oil manufacturer a total of A$13,200 for marketing its products as “extra virgin” even though they purportedly did not meet international grade standards. According to a May 18, 2012, ACCC press release, The Big Olive Company Pty Ltd over a four-month period “supplied nearly three thousand 500ml bottles of ‘Oz Olio’ oil with a representation of extra virgin olive oil on the front label.” The commission has since alleged that some of these oils contained “more free fatty acids than permitted by olive oil trade standards,” indicating that the “olives used to make the oil were old, damaged or otherwise of poor quality and the oil was not extra virgin olive oil at the time of bottling.” ACCC apparently decided to test four imported oils and three domestic labels after receiving complaints from the Australian Olive…
The European Food Safety Authority’s Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms (EFSA GMO Panel) has issued an opinion on the French government’s move to prohibit the planting of a certain GM maize variety, concluding that “there is no specific scientific evidence, in terms of risk to human and animal health or the environment, that would support the notification of an emergency measure under Article 34 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003.” According to EFSA, which noted that most of the studies cited by French authorities were recycled from a 2008 submission on the same topic, the agency was unable to identify “any new science-based evidence” to support the country’s ongoing ban. Citing risks to environmental health, French Agricultural Minister Bruno Le Maire in March 2012 reinstated a ban against this particular variety of GM maize after French courts overturned a previous emergency measure. As one spokesperson explained to media sources, however, EU…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a public meeting titled “International Capacity Building with Respect to Food Safety.” Scheduled for June 19, 2012, in Washington, D.C., the meeting will highlight “FDA’s comprehensive plan to expand the technical, scientific, and regulatory capacity of foreign governments and their respective food industries in countries that export foods to the United States.” Under the auspices of the Food Safety Modernization Act, the capacity-building plan seeks input from food industry representatives, federal and foreign government officials, consumer organizations, and other stakeholders. The plan seeks (i) “[r]ecommendations for bilateral and multilateral arrangements and agreements, including providing for responsibilities of exporting countries to ensure food safety”; (ii) “[p]rovisions for secure electronic data sharing”; (iii) “[p]rovisions for mutual recognition of inspection reports”; (iv) “[t]raining of foreign governments and food producers on U.S. requirements for safe food”; (v) “[r]ecommendations on whether and how to harmonize requirements under…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a notice requiring inspectors to make establishments aware of how to comply with a May 8, 2012, final rule on misbranded meat and poultry. The rule requires establishments to prepare and maintain recall procedures, notify FSIS within 24 hours when adulterated or misbranded meat and poultry products that could harm consumers have entered the marketplace and document their Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system food safety plans. The final rule was discussed in Issue 439 of this Update.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a June 5, 2012, public meeting in Washington, D.C., to provide information and receive comments on draft U.S positions to be discussed at the 35th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission on July 2-7 in Rome, Italy. Agenda items include revocation of existing Codex standards, proposals for the elaboration of new standards and for the discontinuation of work, general implementation status, and a draft Codex strategic plan for 2014-2019. See Federal Register, May 24, 2012.
