WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) today launched a new Web-based back wage employee locator to provide easy and secure access for employees to find and collect back wages due to them.

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San Francisco - The U. S. Department of Labor (DOL) has obtained a settlement agreement requiring the trustees of the Western Spray Painting Inc. employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), located in Stockton, Calif., to pay approximately $1.2 million in restitution to the plan and $236,667 in civil monetary penalties to the federal government.

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San Francisco, California - Now-defunct GKO & Associates, a South San Francisco-based engineering consulting firm, and its former president must repay more than $142,578 to the company’s 401(k) plan under a default judgment obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The judgment resolves a lawsuit against the company and its former president James Winzler for misuse of employee contributions to pay corporate expenses.

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Atlanta - The U.S. Department of Labor has sued to restore more than $20,000 in assets to the 401(k) plan of former R&D Environmental Consultants, Atlanta.

"Trustees of a 401(k) plan have a responsibility to ensure that the assets of the plan are used solely to benefit participants," said Howard Marsh, director of the department's Atlanta regional office of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA).

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Atlanta - The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit seeking the removal of former K & M Plumbing Contractors, Naples, Fla., as fiduciary of its abandoned 401(k) plan. The suit also asks the court to appoint an independent fiduciary to manage the plan.

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South Bend, Indiana - A federal bankruptcy court in Indiana has appointed Morris Anderson and Associates Ltd. to be the independent fiduciary of the abandoned Facility Management Investments, LLC 401(k) Plan, located in South Bend, Indiana, and to distribute more than $713,268 in assets to 180 participants and terminate the plan.

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Parsons, Kansas - The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) sued the fiduciaries of the Nu Alpha Manufacturing Inc. 401(k) plan for failing to forward employee contributions to the plan, failing to segregate the contributions from corporate assets and abandoning the plan without distributing the assets to plan participants.

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Thai agricultural workers employed at Hawaiian farms

SAN FRANCISCO — A Los Angeles-based firm employing overseas workers at two Hawaii farms has been ordered to pay $156,995 in back wages plus $135,450 in civil money penalties following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor. The department found that Global Horizons Manpower Inc., owned by Mordechai Orian, owes backwages to 88 temporary non-immigrant agricultural workers from Thailand.

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Boston, Massachusetts - The president of West End Lumber Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, has been ordered to repay over $401,000 to two company employee benefit plans to resolve a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor alleging violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

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U.S. Labor Department Sponsors New York Seminar on Retirement Solutions for Small Businesses under Federal Employee Benefits Law

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San Francisco, California - The former owner of the now-defunct Palm Springs Orthopaedics Medical Clinic has been ordered to pay $33,600 to two employees covered by an employee profit sharing plan. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor found that Glenn D. Cunningham, who was the sole owner of the clinic and the plan fiduciary, illegally withdrew funds and failed to deposit participant loan repayments into the plan.

WASHINGTON — DisabilityInfo.gov, a comprehensive one-stop federal Web site for disability-related information and resources, has received the American Association of Webmasters (AAWM) 2006 Gold Award for outstanding design and quality of content. The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) manages the Web site, which can be found at www.DisabilityInfo.gov.

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El Campo, Texas - The U.S. Department of Labor has sued El Campo-based Mark’s Machine Co. Inc. and its owners for failing to timely remit $65,337 in employee contributions to the company’s retirement plan and employee premiums to the health plan insurance carrier as required by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

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Atlanta, Georgia - The U.S. Department of Labor has sued the former Lakeside Machine Co., Nashville, Tennessee, along with owner Robert Beach, to restore more than $17,000 to participants in the company’s SIMPLE IRA plan.

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Atlanta - The U.S. Department of Labor has sued to restore more than $6,500 in assets to the 401(k) plan of the former Stewart Law Group, Birmingham, Ala.

"Trustees of a 401(k) plan have a responsibility to ensure that the assets of the plan are used solely to benefit participants," said Howard Marsh, director of the department's Atlanta regional office of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA).

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Alexandria, Virginia, against the trustees of Columbia Services Groups Inc. for failure to remit employee contributions and loan repayments to the company’s 401(k) plan. Columbia was a government contractor that provided information technology assistance to the federal government.

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - The U.S. Department has obtained a settlement permanently barring Austin James Associates, Inc. (AJA) and its president, Curtis M. Herman from serving as fiduciaries to employee benefit plans governed by the Employment Retirement Income Security Inc.

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Boston, Massachusetts - A major owner of Payroll Benefits Inc., Auburn, Maine, agreed to make restitution of more than $125,000 to 18 pension plans administered by the firm. Robert Montgomery, who owned 49% of the company, agreed to the court order to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao announced today that George's Processing Inc. has agreed to pay $1,235,000 in back wages to 5,482 current and former employees of its Cassville, Mo., poultry processing plant for uncompensated overtime hours. The employees were not paid for time spent putting on (donning) and taking off (doffing) protective clothing and other gear, and walking to and from the changing area to their work stations. The judgment was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri in Springfield.