WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh issued the following statement on the February 2022 Employment Situation Report:

“Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the American economy added 678,000 jobs in the month of February, and the unemployment rate was 3.8 percent, down from 4.0 percent in January. This powerful job growth continues the Biden-Harris administration’s historic, worker-centered recovery.

ORLANDO, FL – Employers cannot avoid paying overtime by simply putting employees on a salary, a costly lesson learned by a Florida equipment rental company after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced the availability of $3.2 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for Susan Harwood Workplace Safety and Health Training on Infectious Diseases, Including COVID-19 grants.

WASHINGTON – Earlier today, Deputy Secretary of Labor Julie Su hosted an online listening session with members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to discuss strategies for improving trucking job quality, and for retaining and recruiting drivers.

DETROIT – Timothy Schultz, sole owner of a now defunct Detroit-area transport company, will pay $273,820 – representing $252,416 in overtime back wages and $21,404 in interest  –  to 326 former drivers to resolve a U.S.

BATAVIA, OH ‒ An employer installing sanitation sewer pipes in a 15-foot-deep trench in Batavia exposed its employees to the hazard of collapsing walls by not installing trench safety boxes.

In the week ending February 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 215,000, a decrease of 18,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 232,000 to 233,000. The 4-week moving average was 230,500, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 236,250 to 236,500.

MCCALLA, AL – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has signed a strategic partnership with Brasfield & Gorrie Construction to promote worker safety and health during the construction of the University of Alabama’s Medical West project in McCalla. The University of Alabama SafeState is also supporting the partnership.

LOS ANGELES – The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered a California business aviation provider to pay $958,000 in back wages and associated costs, and correct misinformation about a former employee who the employer retaliated against after they reported flight safety issues.

WASHINGTON – The pandemic worsened disparities in economic outcomes across racial, ethnic and gender lines. Today, the U.S. Department of Labor is announcing a $45 million funding availability to help people in marginalized and underrepresented populations overcome barriers to access career and technical education programs that can help connect them with good-paying jobs.

WASHINGTON –Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai released statements today following yesterday’s vote at the Tridonex auto parts facility in Matamoros, Mexico, when workers voted to choose which union will have the right to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement on their behalf. 

WASHINGTON – Throughout the pandemic, disparities in access to benefits affected women, communities of color and other marginalized workers at a higher rate and often delayed delivery of much needed financial support and services. These disparities in access to unemployment insurance exposed serious real-world shortcomings in the outdated systems used to deliver state and territories unemployment insurance benefits.

WASHINGTON – Today, Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced a partnership with the American Trucking Associations – the largest national trade association for the trucking industry – to join the Biden-Harris administration’s 90-Day Trucking Apprenticeship Challenge and launch Registered Apprenticeships as a route toward getting more well-trained dr

MARTINSBURG, WV – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Continental Brick Co. after an investigation found the employer exposed workers to respirable crystalline silica at the company’s brick manufacturing facility in Martinsburg.

PORTLAND, OR – The U.S. Department of Labor enforces laws that protect workers’ rights. It also holds unscrupulous employers who shortchange their workers accountable, as it has done on behalf of 118 workers at three Oregon restaurants after an investigation revealed wage theft and other violations.

Employer name:                   Area Wide Protection Inc., doing business as Roadtek Traffic Solutions LLC                                                                                                               5874 N. Lee Highway, Suite 100                                                                                                                                                                                                         Fairfield, VA 24435

CHICAGO – The U.S. Department of Labor has asked a federal court in Illinois to hold fiduciaries of the United Employee Benefit Fund, along with its counsel, liable for more than $2.8 million in losses after an investigation found they allowed the misappropriation of the fund’s assets. A Chicago-based multiple employer welfare arrangement, UEBF provides life insurance benefits to about 63 nationwide employer-sponsored benefit plans.

CHICAGO ‒ Careworkers put in long hours tending to the vital needs of people in their homes and at health care facilities, yet they are among the nation’s lowest paid workers. Their jobs are made even more difficult when employers fail to pay them all their rightfully earned wages.

Employer name:                                Heavenly Victory LLC, doing business as Naranjero Super 1

Investigation site:                              Albuquerque, New Mexico

WASHINGTON – Over the past year, dozens of miners have been injured or killed in mining incidents, many of which could have been prevented with proper training and attention to tasks. This unacceptable trend has prompted the U.S. Department of Labor to initiate a new safety campaign to reach miners and educate mine operators on their responsibility to ensure a safe workplace and prevent deadly accidents.