The Labor Department dropped all charges against two Oregon growers that it accused of failing to pay the minimum wage to 1,000 workers, says the news site FairWarning. The case brought congressional scrutiny because of allegations the department misused its “hot goods” authority, which allows it to block shipment of products until an employer pays the appropriate wages. Pan American Berry Growers and B&G Ditchen LLC said their crops would have rotted if they had refused to turn over money to the government.
In a settlement that ended the case, the Labor Department agreed to return $219,000 that it collected for back wages and an additional $60,000. The growers agreed to withdraw counterclaims. FairWarning says “(t)he settlement was, in part, a strategic decision aimed at neutralizing efforts” in Congress to remove “hot goods” as a tool in agricultural cases. “The settlement will surely disappoint worker advocates who have pushed the Labor Department to aggressively pursue violations of farmworkers’ rights.” A farmworkers group says the message to laborers is “‘It doesn’t matter if you get exploited or not,'” said FairWarning. The Oregon Farm Bureau says the Labor Department “went way out of bounds” in its handling of the 2012 event.