MEADVILLE, PA – Multiple U.S. Department of Labor investigations into a minor-aged worker’s fingertip amputation in May 2024 found a Meadville manufacturing company violated federal law and exposed employees to a half dozen serious workplace safety violations.  

SAN JOSE, CA – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered more than $1.4 million in back wages for more than 2,600 employees after finding a large, San Jose-based electrical engineering and construction company failed to pay them proper overtime rates, a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

HONOLULU – The U.S. Department of Labor is actively seeking hundreds of workers who are owed their share of more than $3.8 million in unpaid overtime withheld deliberately by a Kilauea staffing agency and Lihue cleaning contractor after a federal investigation and litigation that followed.  

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division today issued a field assistance bulletin providing guidance on how to determine employee or independent contractor status when enforcing the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

HOUSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division encourages employers, stakeholders, and others in Southeast Texas’ building and heavy construction industries to help establish accurate prevailing wage rates and fringe benefits for workers on federally funded and assisted projects.

NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $319,065 in back wages for 49 workers employed by a New Orleans landscaping company that misclassified them as independent contractors and, by doing so, denied them overtime pay.

PHOENIX – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment ordering two commonly owned Arizona drywall and painting companies to pay $7,450,000 in back wages and damages after investigators found the employers willfully denied overtime pay to more than 1,400 employees.

NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $446,334 in back wages and liquidated damages from two northwest Louisiana home care companies that misclassified 88 workers as independent contractors, depriving them of overtime wages in violation of federal law. 

Date of action:                       Jan. 13, 2025

Type of action:                      Consent judgment and order 

CHICAGO – The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into an agreement with a Tennessee cleaning contractor that requires the employer to pay $400,000 in civil money penalties, monitor and audit policies to prevent the employment of children in dangerous jobs, and maintain a toll-free number for reporting concerns about the illegal employment of children.

Employer:      Green Maintenance Services Inc., Jan Jarosz

Action:            Fair Labor Standards Act consent judgment and order

Courts:           U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, Chicago

NEW ORLEANS – The findings of two recent U.S. Department of Labor investigations show misclassification of employees as independent contractors is an ongoing concern for home care industry workers in Louisiana and throughout the nation as the practice deprives them of their full wages and other important benefits.

Employer name:               CREOKS Health Services, operating as TruHealth Integrated Care

Investigation sites:         4103 South Yale Ave., Suite C 

OKLAHOMA CITY – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment and injunction to recover $66,000 in back wages and liquidated damages for 13 restaurant workers whose Oklahoma City employer kept employee tips and failed to pay overtime in violation of federal labor regulations.

FARMINGTON HILLS, MI – A Farmington Hills Little Caesars restaurant employed minors in violation of federal child labor regulations by assigning them to operating dangerous equipment such as dough mixers and ovens and allowing  three 15-year-olds to work past 7 p.m. on school nights. 

PHILADELPHIA ‒ The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into an agreement with Perdue Farms Inc. and secured a separate agreement with temporary staffing agency Staff Management Solutions LLC and SMX LLC, collectively referred to as “SMX,” to address child labor violations found in an investigation of Perdue’s poultry processing facility in Accomac, Virginia. 

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RALEIGH, NC – The U.S. Department of Labor has debarred a Snow Hill-based father and daughter for three years from a federal program for widespread violations of federal regulations.

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RALEIGH, NC – El Departamento de Trabajo de Estados Unidos ha excluido a un padre y a su hija de Snow Hill durante tres años de un programa federal por infracciones extensas de las regulaciones federales.

WICHITA, KS – The U.S. Department of Labor filed a federal lawsuit on Jan. 6, 2025, as part of its ongoing effort to recover wages and damages for 80 female entertainers of a Wichita gentlemen’s club that allegedly failed to pay full wages, illegally deducted fees from their tips and required them to reimburse the employer if litigation or an investigation ever recovered lost wages for the dancers.

CHICAGO ‒ The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into an agreement with JBS USA Food Co. in which the nation’s leading meat packing processor and slaughterhouse will provide $4 million to assist individuals and communities affected by unlawful child labor practices nationwide.

The Jan. 13, 2025, agreement commits JBS to holding key elements of its supply chain, third-party contractors and service providers accountable for illegal child labor. They are also creating a targeted advertising campaign to raise awareness about unlawful child labor practices.