Honoring champions of America’s workers

Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su honored President Joe Biden by announcing his induction into the Labor Hall of Honor, the department’s highest honor. In more than 50 years of public service, President Biden has remained devoted to improving the lives of America’s workers, retirees and their families by championing pro-union policies that strengthen the middle class and build an economy from the middle out and the bottom up. The first sitting president ever to walk a picket line with striking workers, President Biden joins former Labor Secretary Frances Perkins and others in the Hall of Honor, which recognizes individuals and groups whose distinctive contributions in the field of labor have improved working conditions, wages and overall quality of life for working families in the U.S.

President Biden joined Acting Secretary Su and Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland this week to designate the Frances Perkins National Monument in Newcastle, Maine. The nation’s fourth and longest-serving labor secretary and the nation’s first woman cabinet secretary, Perkins worked to establish Social Security, unemployment insurance, minimum wage and overtime pay as a central architect of the New Deal, a series of domestic programs, public works projects and financial reforms and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to address the Great Depression. Her efforts helped bring millions of Americans out of poverty and provided them with social service benefits. The Frances Perkins National Monument is her family homestead, which has been owned continuously by the family for 270 years.

Four department employees recently received the Presidential Rank Award: Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Disability Employment Policy Jennifer Sheehy, Deputy Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division Patricia Davidson, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget and Performance in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management Geoffrey Kenyon, and Associate Commissioner for Technology and Survey Processing in the Bureau of Labor Statistics Tony Williams. This award represents the hard work, commitment, and perseverance in carrying out the department’s mission.

Seventy-one organizations in 31 states will receive more than $99 million in grants to support skills training and employment services and expand Registered Apprenticeships to equip young workers for jobs in high-demand industries. YouthBuild grants support pre-apprenticeships to educate and train young people from 16 to 24 who are neither enrolled in school or in the labor market.

A former Asia Pacific Airlines pilot will receive more than $2 million in wages, damages and attorney’s fees after a federal investigation determined the employee was illegally reprimanded, suspended and later fired for refusing to fly a cargo plane they believed had an unreliable engine. OSHA found the airline operator, Aero Micronesia Inc., ignored the pilot’s concerns and violated their federally protected rights to raise safety issues. Since 2014, OSHA has received numerous workplace safety complaints from the company’s pilots and, in 2019, a federal judge found Asia Pacific Airlines illegally terminated a pilot who raised several safety concerns.

Ryan Companies US Inc. will pay $350,000 and take other corrective actions as part of a conciliation agreement with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to resolve allegations that the companies’ employees faced severe and pervasive sexual harassment, a hostile work environment and retaliatory actions after complaining to federal investigators. The affected workers were employed by the Minneapolis company to work on federally funded projects in and around Des Moines, Iowa.

Federal investigators found a Georgia contractor could have prevented a 38-year-old worker from suffering fatal electrocution after contact with an unprotected residential power line in Ackworth in May 2024. OSHA cited Serious Tree Services LLC of Marietta for four serious violations after learning the company allowed employees to climb, trim and cut trees within 10 feet of an energized and ungrounded power line without required protective equipment.

We’ve awarded $601,782 to Kansas Local Workforce Investment Area, III to retrain laid off General Motors workers in four counties.

Since January 2021, we've recovered over $41 million in back wages for more than 28,000 workers who were misclassified as independent contractors

Newark construction contractor has been cited for repeated violations of federal fall safety requirements, exposing employees to the industry’s primary cause of death and serious injuries. RRC Home Improvement faces $328,545 in penalties.

A Utah ice cream manufacturer and retailer faces $321,015 in penalties for allowing dozens of 14- and 15-year-old children to operate industrial mixers and work later than allowed by law.

A Cleveland bakeware manufacturer chose not to install machine safety guards or follow safe operating procedures, leading two workers to suffer amputation injuries in June and July.

The Employee Benefits Security Administration may be a small agency, but their impact makes a meaningful difference in the lives of America’s workers and their families.

Six Utah restaurants, owned by former NFL tackle Mike Keim, schemed to deny 20 employees overtime pay until the department forced a “turnover” of $197,936 in wages and damages for the workers.

We were recognized in the 2024 Invest In What Works Federal Standard of Excellence with a gold certification for using data and evidence to improve outcomes for America’s workers.

Looking for workplace #accommodation ideas this year? Job Accommodation Network released the Situations and Solutions Finder with more than 700 accommodation cases that users can search by disability, limitation and/or occupation. The Job Accommodation Network offers free guidance year-round to employers and workers on workplace accommodations for people with disabilities through one-on-one consultation and a range of web resources. Explore the Situations and Solutions Finder: https://askjan.org/sitsol/ 

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