WASHINGTON—Summer jobs in construction may be a young person's first work experience, and the U.S. Department of Labor wants to make sure it's a safe and healthy one. To that end, the department has launched a new nationwide outreach campaign to increase awareness about youth employment laws in construction.

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Atlanta, Georgia - The U.S. Department of Labor will hold free workshops to help employers and administrators of pension and health plans comply with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the federal law that governs private-sector employee benefit plans. The workshops will be held August 3 at the Hilton Greater Cincinnati Airport Hotel, 7373 Turfway Road in Florence.

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New York, New York - The U.S. Department of Labor has sued to obtain court appointment of an independent fiduciary to manage the abandoned retirement plan of Lofek Construction Corporation, Newburgh, New York. The suit also asks to distribute $3,996.16 to an eligible participant and to terminate the plan.

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Dallas, Texas - The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against a company and its former majority owner, both of whom fiduciaries to the Bedford, Texas, firm’s 401(k) plan. The suit seeks to restore losses resulting from failure to timely remit and forward employee retirement contributions to the plan and for using the contributions for business purposes.

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Boston, Massachusetts - Trustees of the stock bonus plan of Trust Group Inc., Taunton, Massachusetts, are barred from future service to employee benefit plans, and the court appointed an independent fiduciary to administer the plan, according to a consent judgment and order obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor resolving alleged violations of the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

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Riverside, California - The U.S. Department of Labor obtained a court order requiring Riverside, California-based Progressive Health Alliance (PHA) and Contractors & Merchants Association (CMA) to comply with administrative subpoenas the department issued requiring them to produce documents and records necessary to its investigation of the two associations.

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Jackson, Mississippi - The Compliance Assistance Seminar sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) and the Mississippi Department of Insurance, will take place August 17-18, 2005 in Jackson, Mississippi at the Edison Walthall Hotel, 225 East Capitol Street.

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao today announced an agreement giving the Enron 401(k) and employee stock ownership (ESOP) plans a general unsecured claim of $305.36 million in Enron's bankruptcy. The proposed settlement also gives Enron's cash balance plan a claim of $50.89 million.

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Minneapolis, Minnesota - The U.S. Department of Labor has sued Granse & Associates Inc., Lakeville, Minnesota, and its trustees for failing to forward contributions withheld from employees’ paychecks to the company’s 401(k) profit sharing plan. The money was used for operating expenses and remains commingled with the company’s general assets.

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a court order requiring Information Systems and Networks (ISN), Bethesda, Maryland, and its president to pay more than $700,000 to the firm’s pension and profit sharing plans. The payment is restitution for contributions the employer failed to make from 1995 through 2003.

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WASHINGTON-The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that more than $28 million in National Emergency Grant (NEG) funds has been awarded to 35 states, the District of Columbia and Guam, each of which could be affected by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) recommendations.

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SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Department of Labor will hold a free workshop to help employers and pension plan administrators comply with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the federal law that governs private-sector pension and health benefit plans for employees. The workshop will be held July 19 at the Ronald Dellums Federal Building, 1301 Clay St., Oakland, Calif.

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CORRECTION TO THIS RELEASE (July 1, 2005) Company owner Dennis Kelly has been removed from the first paragraph.

This action did not freeze his assets, only those assets of Plan 3 Inc. and Plan 3 Technologies.

U.S. Labor Department Halts Rockville, Md., Companies From Administering Benefit Plans Nationwide

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board (ARB) has ruled that 17 physicians, hired to work in rural Tennessee clinics under the Immigration and Nationality Act's H-1B visa program, are due over $1 million in back wages. The ARB also upheld the assessment of over $100,000 in civil money penalties for willful violations of the law.

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Miami, Florida - The U.S. Department of Labor sued Miami, Florida-based ETF Technologies Inc. and its president for failing to deposit and timely forward employee contributions and loan repayments to the company’s 401(k) plan. The suit also seeks to appoint a successor to manage the plan, which has been without oversight since the company ceased doing business.

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Chicago, Illinois - The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a settlement requiring the president of Chicago Spectro Service Laboratory Inc., Oak Park, Illinois, to restore $626,215.20 to the company’s profit sharing plan.

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Albuquerque, New Mexico - The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment requiring Albuquerque-based Universal Printing & Publishing Inc. to restore $155,622 to its profit sharing plan as restitution for an improper loan made to the company by the plan. The order also permanently bars two company officials from service to employee benefit plans in the future.

WASHINGTON—Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao this week announced the official theme for October's National Disability Employment Awareness Month — Workers with Disabilities: Ready for Tomorrow's Jobs Today.

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Chicago, Illinois - The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a court judgment requiring Lord & Essex Homes Inc., an Aurora, Illinois, home builder, and the trustee of the company’s 401(k) plan to restore $12,907.33 as restitution for failure to forward employee contributions and loan repayments to the plan.