July 10, 2024

Department of Labor seeks court order to end IT staffing agency practices that exploit workers through a system akin to modern-day indentured servitude

NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor has asked a federal court to stop improper employment practices by a Virginia-based IT staffing agency that bind employees to their jobs, extract huge sums from them if they leave the firm and forbid them from engaging in protected activity under federal law.

July 10, 2024

US Department of Labor awards more than $39M in grants to expand, diversify state Registered Apprenticeship programs

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of more than $39 million in grants to 46 states and territories to increase the capacity of Registered Apprenticeship programs across key industries and provide workers with access to the new, good-paying jobs created under the Biden-Harris administration’s Investing in America agenda.

July 10, 2024

Department of Labor recovers $172K for 21 restaurant workers after investigation finds Richmond restaurant denied overtime wages

Employer:                             

Chicanos Inc., operating as Chicanos Cocina Bar and Grill

Investigation site:                  

523 E. Main St., Richmond, VA

July 10, 2024

US Department of Labor announces up to $1M in Brookwood-Sago grants available to promote mine safety, health education; training

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced up to $1 million in funding available in Brookwood-Sago grants to support the delivery of education and training to the nation’s mining community to help them identify, avoid and prevent unsafe and unhealthy working conditions.

July 10, 2024

Investigations find contractor repeatedly put employees in unguarded trenches that collapsed, trapped, injured workers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island

BOSTON – Twice in less than three months in late 2023, a Boston waterproofing contractor exposed employees to life-threatening cave-ins and excavation hazards at residential worksites in Arlington, Massachusetts, and Warwick, Rhode Island, federal workplace safety investigators found.

July 9, 2024

US Department of Labor finds Alabama concrete contractor failed to protect 65-year-old employee fatally struck by 4-ton container near Tuscaloosa

MOUNDVILLE, AL – A U.S. Department of Labor workplace safety investigation has found an industrial concrete construction contractor failed to follow required safety procedures that could have prevented a 65-year-old worker from suffering fatal injuries when a shipping container weighing more than four tons fell and struck the employee at a job site near Tuscaloosa.

July 9, 2024

US Department of Labor recovers $110K in back wages, damages for 46 workers whose New Orleans employer withheld overtime pay

Employer name:                Southern Care Connection LLC, operating as #1 in Homecare

Investigation site:            1539 Jackson Ave., Suite 120

                                                    New Orleans, LA 70130   

July 9, 2024

US Department of Labor recovers $912K in back wages, withheld tips, liquidated damages for 44 employees of New Hampshire taproom

MANCHESTER, NH – A federal investigation has recovered $912,594 for 44 employees of a Londonderry brewery and restaurant that illegally kept workers’ credit card tips and incorrectly exempted several salaried employees, such as brewers, bartenders, cooks and administrative staff from overtime pay requirements.

July 8, 2024

Four years after double fatality, Houston-area tank cleaning contractor cited for same hazards that claimed another employee’s life

HOUSTON A La Porte tank cleaning company again chose to disregard federal safety standards that may have protected their employees from hazardous working conditions and prevented another employee from suffering a fatal injury. In December 2023, just two days before Christmas, the wife and son of an employee at the company grew concerned when he didn’t return after his shift. Later that day, he was found unresponsive.

July 8, 2024

Department of Labor to hold ERISA Advisory Council meeting July 8-10

WASHINGTON – The Department of Labor will hold a meeting of the Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans, also known as the ERISA Advisory Council from July 8-10 in the department’s Francis Perkins Building in Washington. Open to the public, the meeting will be in-person and accessible online and via teleconference.

July 8, 2024

US Department of Labor awards $800K to provide employment, training services for workers displaced by lumber mill closures

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced an award of $800,000 to the Montana Department of Labor and Industry for employment and training services for people in Montana affected by the closure of the Pyramid Lumber and Roseburg Forest Products lumber mills in Missoula County. 

July 8, 2024

Department of Labor will hold benefits information session for current, former nuclear weapons workers, survivors in Chicago area

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor will host an information session in Lisle, Illinois, on July 18 for current and former nuclear weapons workers employed at covered facilities on the benefits available under the federal Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. The session is also open to these workers’ survivors.

July 5, 2024

Department of Labor awards nearly $3.8M in funding to Florida to continue support for temporary jobs, workforce training after Hurricane Ian

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the incremental award of $3,750,000 in funding to support continued disaster-relief employment and workforce training for eligible residents in Florida as the state continues to recover following Hurricane Ian.

July 5, 2024

Statement by Acting Secretary of Labor Su on June jobs report

WASHINGTON – The Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su issued the following statement on the June 2024 Employment Situation report:   

“Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the American economy added 206,000 jobs in June. The prime-age labor force participation rate hit a 22-year high, and the unemployment rate remains low at 4.1 percent. This strong jobs report demonstrates another month of steady, stable economic growth.  

July 3, 2024

Department of Labor finds Pennsylvania roofing contractor willfully exposed own children to potentially deadly falls at Mechanicsburg site

LIVERPOOL, PA– The owner of a Liverpool roofing company risked the lives of two of his children by exposing them to falls from heights — the construction industry’s leading cause of death — while they worked on roofs atop a Mechanicsburg apartment complex in June 2024, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation has found.

July 3, 2024

US Department of Labor obtains preliminary injunction against Benton restaurant to stop employing children illegally, retaliating against workers

LITTLE ROCK, AR – The owner of a Benton tavern and restaurant has agreed to comply with a preliminary injunction obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor to stop the employer from violating federal regulations.

The action comes amid allegations that Tim’s Tavern and owner Tim Steppach failed to pay minimum and overtime wages as required, kept workers’ tips, employed children illegally and fired a worker who warned that the department would be notified.

July 3, 2024

Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report

In the week ending June 29, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 238,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 233,000 to 234,000. The 4-week moving average was 238,500, an increase of 2,250 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 236,000 to 236,250.

July 2, 2024

US Department of Labor cites Georgia sawmill for willfully exposing workers to hazards after investigation of 24-year-old employee’s fatal injuries

SAVANNAH, GA – The U.S. Department of Labor has determined a Hazlehurst sawmill could have prevented a 24-year-old employee from suffering fatal injuries while working with a woodchipper if the company had ensured that federal safety regulations were followed.

July 2, 2024

US Department of Labor finds Northern Arizona VA Healthcare System again failed to protect employees from serious, potentially deadly patient violence

PRESCOTT, AZ – For the second time in four years, federal investigators have determined a Prescott veterans’ medical center failed to protect healthcare workers from unit residents who kicked, bit, struck, punched, slapped and sexually harassed them.