USDA Announces Assistance for On-Farm Food Safety Expenses for Specialty Crop Growers

The USDA will provide up to $200 million in assistance for specialty crop producers who incur eligible on-farm food safety program expenses to obtain or renew a food safety certification in calendar years 2022 or 2023.

For each year, the new Food Safety Certification for Specialty Crops program (FSCSC) covers a percentage of the specialty crop operation’s cost of obtaining or renewing their certification, as well as a portion of their related expenses.

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Sonia Salas

9th Circuit Rejects Novel Argument for Compensation of Pre-employment Drug Testing

A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel has upheld a lower court ruling in favor of employer WinCo Foods, LLC. A class action litigation brought by employee Alfred Johnson on behalf of himself and other WinCo employees (plaintiffs) in California, alleged WinCo failed to compensate successful applicants for employment, as employees, for the time and expense of taking pre-employment drug tests (Johnson v. WinCo Foods (June 2022)). 

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Teresa McQueen

Cal/OSHA Revives Workplace Violence Prevention Discussion

Cal/OSHA’s Violence Prevention in Health Care regulations currently require specified health care facilities to establish workplace violence prevention plans to protect health care personnel from aggressive and violate behavior. While those in non-health care industries have more generalized duties (under Cal/OSHA general duty requirements) requiring the identification and evaluation of workplace hazards with no duty to create and follow any specific plan.

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Teresa McQueen

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