Date of Action: March 31, 2016

Type of Actions: Employee Retirement Income Security Act Lawsuit, Adversary Complaint in Bankruptcy Petition No. 15-23963.

Defendants: Michael A. Lewis, Monica Fox

Acme Orthotics and Prosthetics Laboratories Inc. Profit Sharing 401(k) Plan and Trust.

The president and owner of Acme, Michael A. Lewis is the sole named defendant in the adversary complaint filed in bankruptcy court.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez has announced the inaugural appointees and the date of the first meeting of the Advisory Board on Toxic Substances and Worker Health for Part E of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez issued the following statement about the March 2016 Employment Situation report released today:

Date of action: March 1, 2016

Type of action: Consent Judgment and Order

Names of defendants: H.C. Watson Corp., doing business as Interim HealthCare, James C. Watson and Melissa Moore, formerly known as Melissa Belanger and Melissa Greenlaw.

Employer name: U.S. Postal Service, 116 Oak St., Moorhead, Iowa

Citations issued: March 24, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Des Moines Area Office cited the postal facility for one repeated and four serious safety violations.

In the week ending March 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 276,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 265,000. The 4-week moving average was 263,250, an increase of 3,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 259,750.

Date of Action: March 31, 2016

Type of Actions: Employee Retirement Income Security Act Lawsuit

Adversary Complaint in Bankruptcy Petition No. 15-23963.

Defendants: Michael A. Lewis
Monica Fox
Acme Orthotics and Prosthetics Laboratories Inc. Profit Sharing 401(k) Plan and Trust.

The president and owner of Acme, Michael A. Lewis is the sole named defendant in the adversary complaint filed in bankruptcy court.

IOLA, Kan. ‒ As alarms sounded, hundreds of workers evacuated a candy manufacturing plant when an air-conditioning unit pipe failed and released about 22 pounds of anhydrous ammonia into the air throughout the Iola facility. No workers were injured in the incident which closed the plant for more than two hours.

Employer name: Land O Lakes Purina Feed LLC, doing business as Purina Animal Nutrition
414 E. 18^th St., Wichita, Kansas

Citations issued: March 31, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Wichita Area Office cited Land O Lakes Purina Feed LLC for three serious, one repeat serious, and one repeat other than serious violations. The citations are the result of an October 2015 OSHA investigation.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – More than 40,000 hospital workers at Mercy Health System and affiliated locations around the nation are no longer required to have their health care providers answer a litany of unnecessary and illegal questions before requesting leave for their own serious health conditions or to care for a family member.

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced that federal inspectors issued 146 citations and six orders during special impact inspections at 10 coal mines and five metal and nonmetal mines in February.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor and eight other federal agencies today published a final rule that will provide new religious liberty protections for beneficiaries of federally funded social service programs, while also adding new protections for the ability of religious providers to compete for government funds on the same basis as any other private organization.

In the week ending March 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 276,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 265,000. The 4-week moving average was 263,250, an increase of 3,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 259,750.

WACO, Texas – Federal inspectors found that the nation’s largest chicken producer failed to use proper safety procedures that allowed a release of 79 pounds of anhydrous ammonia and endangered workers at its Waco facility on Sept. 28, 2015. Anhydrous ammonia is a dangerous chemical that can be fatal when inhaled and cause serious burns to the skin.

Employer name: 929 Restaurant Corp., doing business as Clairmont Diner

Investigation site: 929 Yonkers Ave., Yonkers, New York

Investigation findings: An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that the Clairmont Diner violated the minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping requirements of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Investigators found the employer  

Expansion: Former Battelle Laboratories employees who worked at the King Avenue site in Columbus, Ohio, may qualify for a presumption of causation if they are included in a designated Special Exposure Cohort class of employees, and have a diagnosis of one of 22 specified cancers.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez issued the following statement on today’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association

“Today’s Supreme Court ruling is an important victory for public employees, for their right to have a voice at work, for their right to stand together and speak up for the things that matter to them, their families and their communities.

Employer name: Quality Christmas Tree Ltd., doing business as Houston Garden Center

Location: 1700 West Loop North, Houston, Texas 77008

Citations issued: March 28, 2016

GRAPEVINE, Texas – Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health Joseph A. Main announced the agency’s plan to curb mining deaths in one of the year’s deadliest months. The announcement came at the 34^th Annual South Central Joint Mine Health & Safety Conference in Grapevine.