BOSTON – Un empleado que trabajaba para dos contratistas de construcción de Massachusetts estaba ejerciendo sus derechos cuando se quejó ante su supervisor por no recibir el pago de horas extra y solicitó el salario que le correspondía. Las dos compañías respondieron con una campaña de represalias, presionando al trabajador a retirar su reclamación por el pago de las horas extra.

BOSTON – The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has entered a consent order that three Canton construction businesses and their president, Charles L. Capone, pay a total of $310,000 – $155,000 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages – to 19 employees following an investigation and litigation by the U.S. Department of Labor.

GOLDEN VALLEY, MN – Low-wage workers often do much of the essential work in our communities, and women, immigrants and people of color often hold those jobs. The healthcare industry employs many of the nation’s low-wage workers, which underscores the importance of a federal court action and a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation related to a Golden Valley home healthcare provider.

LANSING, MI – A Lansing business owner who failed to forward $25,252 in employer contributions and $52,753 in employee payroll-deducted retirement contributions to his company’s individual retirement plan will pay $798 in court fines and costs after pleading guilty in Michigan’s 30th Circuit Court of Ingham County.

NORTHBROOK, IL – A federal court has approved the settlement of a U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration whistleblower investigation that determined a Northbrook waste management company violated federal law when it retaliated against a former truck driver who reported a workplace injury and raised concerns to the company that an unrepaired truck was unsafe to operate.

AVON, CO – A Colorado state court has sentenced the owner of an Avon construction company to jail and ordered restitution for the family of a 50-year-old company worker who suffered fatal injuries in a preventable trench collapse at a Granby work site in June 2018.

CHICAGO – The operators of a Chicago towing company that promises customers round-the-clock service failed to pay dozens of its workers legally for the hours they worked providing emergency road service. 

MINNEAPOLIS – Imagine being on your feet 60 hours a week serving customers but getting paid for just 30, or working more than 10 hours a day as a cook or dishwasher for a flat salary and being denied minimum wage and overtime protections because your employer wrongly classified you as an independent contractor and not as an employee.

OLYPHANT, PA – A federal court has entered a consent judgment resolving a U.S. Department of Labor lawsuit filed after an investigation found that an Olyphant home healthcare agency failed to pay 98 nurses overtime wages they legally earned – including payment for ancillary work and work-related travel – in violation of federal law.

NEW YORK – A Long Island construction contractor who often directed laborers and masons to work 10-hour days, five or six days a week, knew the Fair Labor Standards Act required employees to receive overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours per week, but disregarded the law.

BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts prohibiting a Canton contractor from retaliating against former and current employees who cooperate with the department’s Wage and Hour Division investigation or engage in other activity protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

ST. CROIX, VI – The District Court of the Virgin Islands has ordered a Gallatin, Tennessee, construction management and disaster relief company and its then officer and current CEO to pay $87,000 to 26 employees to resolve violations of the minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

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MINNEAPOLIS – A Minnesota lawn care and snow removal company took advantage of more than 70 temporary foreign workers – charging them higher rent than allowed, requiring them to pay for their international transportation and demanding payment to keep their jobs – all in violation of the federal H-2B Visa program. The program helps supply employers with temporary foreign workers when sufficient numbers of U.S.

CINCINNATI, OH – A Cincinnati pastor who collected $121,344 in pension funds and Social Security benefits under his deceased father’s name for more than four years will serve 180 days home confinement, and 3 years’ probation after pleading guilty in federal court in Ohio on Sept. 30, 2020.

HARTFORD, CT – Two Fairfield County restaurants and their owners were required to pay $137,465 in back wages and liquidated damages to workers after U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigations found that the employers violated the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

NEW YORK – A Long Island-based petroleum barge company and three former and current management officials have paid $375,000 in restitution to the brother of one of two seamen killed in a barge explosion off the coast of Texas. The seaman alleged the company fired him for cooperating with investigators and reporting safety concerns to the U.S. Coast Guard. The explosion occurred on Oct. 20, 2017, off Port Aransas aboard the Buster Bouchard/B. No. 255.

NEW YORK – A Long Island superstructure, foundation and concrete company will pay $135,612 in penalties stemming from the collapse of an approximately 30-foot deep trench in Oyster Bay that led to the deaths of two workers.

HOUSTON – In January 2019, a worker at a Holiday Inn Express & Suites hotel in Waller alerted their employer that exposure to carbon monoxide made them ill and asked the employer to call an ambulance. In addition to refusing the worker’s request, the employer allegedly threatened to terminate the employee. After going to the hospital, the worker was terminated.

NILES, MI – A recent court order requires one of the nation’s largest traffic control companies to pay road flaggers in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio for time they spend transporting their co-workers in a company truck to and from job sites at the company’s request.