BOSTON – Robert Higgins and Kelvin Mattocks died on Oct. 21, 2016 in Boston, when the approximately 12-foot deep trench in which they were working collapsed, breaking an adjacent fire hydrant supply line and filling the trench with water in a matter of seconds.

BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor and UnWrapped, Inc. have reached a settlement agreement that will allow employees of the Massachusetts sewing factory to recover $890,021 in back wages and liquidated damages to resolve past violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

NEW YORK – A hotel management company and the company which supplied employees to nine of its New York City hotels have agreed to resolve an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division that found violations of the minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co., alleging that the financial institution systematically discriminated against female employees in certain professional positions by compensating them less than their male counterparts. The suit maintains that JPMorgan’s compensation policies and practices violated Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment on the basis of sex.

BOSTON – The National Railroad Passenger Corp., better known as Amtrak, retaliated against a supervisory special agent in its inspector general’s office when he raised concerns about railroad safety, fraud and abuse involving an Amtrak contractor and when he supported a fellow agent’s safety concerns during an internal investigation, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has found.

Date of Action: Jan. 6, 2017

Type of Action: Lawsuit to recover missing retirement and health plan funds

Name of Defendant(s): Central Security Communications Inc.
Chief Executive Officer Robert Millikin
Fiduciary Howard Klinger

MONTPELIER, Vt. – The U.S. Department of Labor is suing the fiduciaries of a Vermont employee stock ownership plan for violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act alleging that First Bankers Trust Services, Inc.’s 2011 purchase of the company on behalf of the ESOP from its two previous owners caused the plan to suffer sizable financial losses.

FAIRMONT, W.Va. – When a co-worker severed part of his thumb in July 2014, a food processor at a beef jerky manufacturing plant acted quickly, helping him apply pressure to the wound and using her cellphone to call 911. Before responders could answer, the company’s owner ordered her to hang up. Two days later, she was terminated.

NEWARK, N.J. — For too long, a hard day's work for United Airlines' baggage handlers at Newark Liberty International Airport meant unnecessary pain and the risk of debilitating injuries caused by lifting customer baggage using awkward postures. From 2011 to January 2015, the airline's baggage handlers reported at least 622 musculoskeletal injuries.

PASSAIC, N.J. – Fifty-five low-wage production workers who spend long work days sewing and loading mattresses at a Passaic mattress refurbishment company will soon receive their share of $292,998 in back wages and liquidated damages after the company entered into a consent judgment with the U.S. Department of Labor.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found a Dudley contract packager failed to inform the agency as required that a temporary worker needed hospitalization after he sustained a serious injury on May 26, 2016. Even worse, the employer failed to contact emergency medical services immediately when the injury occurred.

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The owner of three Buffalo-area gas stations has paid a total of $84,000 in back wages and damages to 41 employees after an investigation by the Buffalo area office of U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

Lakhwinder Gill – the owner of the Angola Food Mart Inc. (Angola), LHP Food Mart Inc. (Buffalo) and Lake Shore Mini Mart, Inc. (Hamburg) gas stations – will also pay $1,000 in civil monetary penalties.

NEW YORK – A Queens-based operator of residential nursing homes and adult care facilities will pay a total of $2,006,796 in back wages and liquidated damages to 844 underpaid employees at five locations in eastern New York following a federal investigation of alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

NEW YORK – A Garden City restaurant and catering hall will pay a total of $285,800 in back wages and liquidated damages to 24 underpaid employees to resolve violations of the minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The company will also pay $24,200 in civil money penalties to the U.S. Department of Labor and take corrective action to prevent future violations as part of a consent judgment filed with the U.S.

BOSTON – For several years, inspections by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration identified a disturbing pattern of defective forklifts being used to move, handle, load and unload freight in at least 11 Central Transport LLC shipping terminals in nine states.

Date of Action: Nov. 17, 2016

Type of Action: Lawsuit

Name of Defendants:Tango Bakery Inc., doing business as Tango Bakery
Adrian Gordillo-Ross
Sergio Mendoza

BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Florida-based Walker International Events on Feb. 4, 2016, for 14 serious violations of workplace safety standards in connection with a circus tent collapse in Lancaster, New Hampshire on Aug. 3, 2015, during a severe thunderstorm.

LANSDOWNE, Pa. – An administrative law judge recently affirmed nine cited federal safety and health violations and assessed $344,960 in fines against Lansdowne masonry contractor, J.C. Stucco and Stone. This follows a March 2016, hearing  regarding six willful and three repeat citations issued after two 2014 inspections by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Date of Action: Nov. 15, 2016

Type of Action: Consent judgment

Name of Defendants: Puerto Rico Police Department
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

NEW YORK – Sixty-three workers employed on the federally funded reconstruction of Chambers Street between Broadway and West St. in Lower Manhattan will receive a total of $1,190,861 in back wages following an investigation and litigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, in keeping with a consent order  approved by the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges.