WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh issued the following statement on the December 2021 Employment Situation Report:

Date of action:                       Dec. 30, 2021

Type of action:                      Order

Names of defendants:       Convergys Customer Management Group Inc.

Who:               Wage and Hour Division

                          Occupational Safety and Health Administration

What:             Assistance and enforcement action in Arkansas after December 2021 tornadoes

When:            Ongoing

Where:           Northeast Arkansas

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board announced today that the department’s Wage and Hour Division and the NLRB have signed a Memorandum of Understanding strengthening the agencies’ partnership and outlining procedures on information-sharing, joint investigations and enforcement activity, as well as training, education and community outreach.

MINNEAPOLIS – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered more than $9.3 million for participants of a Minneapolis manufacturing company’s employee stock ownership plan after the fund overpaid for company stock in 2011, under the terms of a consent judgment entered in a federal court.

KANSAS CITY, MO – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Consulate General of Mexico in Kansas City have renewed an alliance – first signed in 2013 – to continue their collaborative relationship to promote workplace safety and health with the consulate and Mexican nationals working in Kansas and Missouri.

In the week ending January 1, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 207,000, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 198,000 to 200,000. The 4-week moving average was 204,500, an increase of 4,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 199,250 to 199,750.

ATLANTA – The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, against a Peachtree City auto repair shop and its owner seeking $36,971 in back wages and liquidated damages after investigators found they violated the retaliation, overtime and recordkeeping prohibitions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

HIDDEN HILLS, CA – A Southern California construction company has paid $72,342 in back wages and liquidated damages to 12 workers after the U.S. Department of Labor found the employer failed to pay them overtime wages as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The department also assessed $8,460 in penalties for the employer’s willful violations.

SAN JOSE, CA – A U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division investigation found that the owner of a luxury apartment rental property in San Jose’s historic Japantown denied maintenance workers overtime wages, and failed to keep accurate records of employees’ earnings in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

DECATUR, AL – Exposure to dangerous toxins at an Alabama chemical manufacturing plant – Daikin America Inc. – lead to the deaths of two workers and sickened another worker after the employer failed to provide appropriate protective equipment and implement safe work practices during maintenance activities on chemical processing equipment.

HONOLULU – A U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division investigation has found a Hawaii flooring contractor misclassified some employees as independent contractors and paid others straight-time wages for all hours when they worked over 40 in a workweek, both violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

DELAIR, NJ – Aluminum Shapes LLC will affirm a $1 million penalty and accept 10 willful, 15 repeat and 55 serious violations and one other-than-serious citation in a settlement agreement to resolve two long-running U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration cases related to a fatality and a series of employee injuries at the company’s Delair plant.

NUEVA YORK - Un tribunal federal en Nueva York ha ordenado a una pizzería de Long Island y a su propietario pagar $178,000 en salarios atrasados, compensación por daños y multas después de que una investigación del Departamento de Trabajo de EE.UU. descubriera que las prácticas salariales del empresario afectaron a trabajadores por no pagarles las horas extras.

TAMPA, FL – An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor led to major changes by a Tampa employer in its pay practices that have the potential to affect the lives of more than 2,000 local workers.

NEW YORK – A federal court in New York has ordered a Long Island pizzeria and its owner to pay $178,000 in back wages, damages and civil money penalties after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found the employer’s pay practices shortchanged workers when it failed to pay overtime wages.

OKLAHOMA CITY – While nursing home workers continue to put themselves at-risk as the nation battles the ongoing pandemic, federal investigators found that the pay practices of three Oklahoma City-area nursing homes denied 129 workers all of their hard-earned wages.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the awards of $14 million in cooperative agreements to support a broad set of actions by two projects intended to combat child labor, forced labor and human trafficking, which affects more than 200 million children, women and men worldwide.

BOSTON – An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor has led the fiduciaries of a Utica, New York, employee stock ownership plan to agree to return $431,000 to the plan’s participants and take action to resolve its Employee Retirement Income Security Act violations.

BURLINGTON, NC – To ensure nursing mothers can care for their newborns and earn a living, federal law requires employers to designate a place for them to express milk privately without fear of intrusion.