WASHINGTON, DC – Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor took a range of actions to aid American workers and employers as our nation combats the coronavirus pandemic.

Reopening America’s Economy:

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor announced the availability of up to $400,000 in grant funding through its Brookwood-Sago grant program to support education and training to help identify, avoid and prevent unsafe working conditions in, and around, the nation’s mines.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia traveled to North Carolina with Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC-05), the Republican Leader of the House Education and Labor Committee, to highlight the nation’s continued economic recovery from the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Secretary Scalia first visited U.S. Cotton in Belmont, where he met with workers and company leadership to discuss workplace safety, economic re-opening and the recent entry into force of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Secretary Scalia and Rep.

WASHINGTON, DC – Solicitor of Labor Kate O’Scannlain and Assistant Secretary for the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) David G. Zatezalo issued the following statement regarding today’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in In re: United Mine Workers of America International Union and United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO-CLC, No. 20-1215:

WEST COVINA, CA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) announced today that it will offer webinars on July 23, 2020, to help employers and employees in Southern California’s Chinese communities understand the benefits and protections provided by the paid sick leave provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). Webinars will be offered in both Mandarin and Cantonese.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) today announced significant steps to streamline optional-use forms that workers can use to request and employers can use to coordinate leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

COUNTY OF CARVER, MN – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), the County of Carver, Minnesota, has paid an employee $1,136 in back wages for wrongly denying the worker’s request for paid leave to care for her child when her daycare center closed amid the coronavirus pandemic, a violation of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).

In the week ending July 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 1,300,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 4,000 from 1,314,000 to 1,310,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,375,000, a decrease of 60,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 2,250 from 1,437,250 to 1,435,000.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – After a compliance review by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), Rockwell Collins – a federal contractor that designs and manufactures avionics, flight controls and information technology systems – has agreed to pay $250,000 in back pay to 76 female employees to resolve alleged pay discrimination at its Cedar Rapids, Iowa, facility.

MILWAUKEE, WI – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) in Wisconsin, the IRS and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) are presenting a series of webinars on paid sick leave, and expanded family and medical leave requirements of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) for employers and business owners.

BRIGHTON, MI – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) will present a webinar for Michigan area employers and business owners on paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave requirements of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). WHD’s Detroit, Michigan, office and the Howell Area Chamber of Commerce, Heartland Area Chamber of Commerce and Greater Brighton Area Chamber of Commerce are presenting the event.  

DE SOTO, GA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Triple S Communications Inc. for violations of OSHA’s trenching and excavation standards after an employee was fatally injured in a trench collapse at a De Soto, Georgia, worksite. The Moultrie, Georgia, telecommunications installation contractor faces $58,025 in penalties.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has ordered JHOS Logistics and Transportation Inc. to reinstate an employee terminated for refusing to drive what the employee reasonably believed to be an overweight vehicle at the company’s Wilmington, California facility. OSHA also ordered the company to pay more than $190,000 in back wages, $25,000 in punitive damages, $5,000 in compensatory damages and attorney’s fees.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a Request for Information regarding the impact of paid family and medical leave on America’s workforce.

BOSTON, MA – The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has found two Massachusetts construction companies and two of their officers in civil contempt for failing to fulfill certain terms of an August 2016 consent judgment and order requiring them to pay $2,359,685 in back wages and liquidated damages to 478 employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he highlighted the Department’s recent announcement of $90 million in grant funding to help individuals who are exiting the justice system re-enter the workforce. In a roundtable discussion with leadership from grant recipient Knoxville Leadership Foundation and other community representatives, Secretary Scalia discussed effective strategies for supporting re-entry to the workforce of those leaving the criminal justice system.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the appointment of five members and leadership for the 2020 Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans, also known as the ERISA Advisory Council. The 15-member council provides advice on policies and regulations affecting employee benefit plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award two grants of up to $4 million each to increase the number of cocoa cooperatives demonstrating a reduction of child labor in the cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award up to $5 million in grant funding to reduce child labor in Ethiopia’s agricultural sector, with a focus on the informal sector, using a gender-focused approach.

Made available through the Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), the grant will focus on vulnerable women and adolescent girls, from age 5 to 17, working in agriculture.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award up to $4.5 million in grant funding to reduce child labor in mica-producing communities in Madagascar.