WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh joined leaders from North America’s Building Trades Unions, the National Urban League and graduates of pre-apprenticeship programs in construction and construction-related industries to discuss how Registered Apprenticeship programs can train the future workforce to help fill jobs in critical sectors.

PLOVER, WI ‒ At a Plover, Wisconsin, Del Monte Foods cannery, a 20-year-old seasonal worker suffered a partial amputation of their finger after attempting to unjam an unguarded palletizer machine, a federal workplace safety investigation found.

BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment and order prohibiting a Somerville, Massachusetts, restaurant and its owner from retaliating against employees who cooperate in the department’s efforts to enforce the Fair Labor Standards Act. Fakhouri Inc. – operating as Sound Bites Café – and Yasser Mirza must also pay $15,000 in punitive damages to the affected current and former employees in connection with the department’s retaliation claim.

WESTBURY, NY – Federal workplace safety inspectors have cited a thermometer manufacturer for overexposing their employees to mercury at its West Babylon facility.

LAFAYETTE, GA – A 21-year-old line operator at a LaFayette, Georgia, insulation manufacturer suffered severe head trauma after being caught in a machine’s roller. A U.S. Department of Labor investigation determined that the employer willfully ignored federal workplace safety standards.

LOUISVILLE, KY – A federal court in Kentucky has sentenced the co-founder of several phony medical clinics in Louisville and Atlanta, who pleaded guilty to one felony count, after the U.S. Department of Labor found the operators collected $258,000 from 15 self-funded healthcare benefit programs for services they never provided.

NEW YORK – A federal court has ordered a Brewster home care provider to stop retaliating against employees in an effort to obstruct a U.S. Department of Labor investigation into the employers’ pay practices.

Participants:      U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational

                                  Safety and Health Administration

                                  American Society of Safety Professionals, East Texas Chapter

In the week ending February 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 190,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 192,000. The 4-week moving average was 193,000, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 191,250. 

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh issued the following statement on President Biden’s announcement of his intent to nominate Julie Su as the next secretary of labor:

“I am grateful to President Biden for announcing his intent to nominate my dear friend and colleague, Deputy Secretary Julie Su, to succeed me as U.S. Secretary of Labor. 

WASHINGTON – With meaningful employment secured, formerly incarcerated people can fully integrate into their communities more successfully and avoid relapse. To help remove barriers to employment the U.S. Department of Labor today announces the availability of $48 million in funding to provide training and employment services to incarcerated individuals before their release from state correctional facilities, or county or local jails.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a $25 million funding opportunity for organizations to provide training and employment services to help veterans combat homelessness.

ATLANTA- Con un incremento de casi $1,000,000 en salarios atrasados recuperados en el sudeste para los trabajadores de la industria agrícola en 2022, la División de Horas y Salarios del Departamento de Trabajo de EE. UU.

Employer:                                   North Sunflower Medical Center

Investigation site:                  840 N. Oak Ave.

                                                          Ruleville, MS 38771

EL PASO, TX – A federal workplace safety investigation of an El Paso jewelry metal-plating finisher found the company again exposing workers to serious hazards, including willfully failing to protect people working with dangerous acids and other chemicals from potentially permanent eye injuries. 

Employer:                               ELJ Inc.

Investigation site:                  133 Batting Cage Trail

                                                 Jacksonville, NC 28540

Quién:            Departamento de Trabajo de los Estados Unidos

Qué:                Seminario Agrícola Virtual 2023

Cuándo:         7 de marzo de 2023, de 9 a.m. a 4:30 p.m. CST

Dónde:            Evento en línea. Inscribirse para asistir.

Who:               U.S. Department of Labor

What:             2023 Virtual Agricultural Seminar

When:             March 7, 2023, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CST

Where:           Online event. Register to attend.

TAMUNING, GUAM ‒ Federal safety inspectors found Pepsi Guam Bottling jeopardized the safety of their employees by disabling safety devices to allow workers to reach into a bottle-labeling machine as often as 15 times an hour to grab and fix labels and adjust tipping bottles to avoid slowing or stopping production.

ATLANTA – With a nearly $1 million annual increase in back wages recovered in the Southeast for agricultural industry workers in calendar year 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is continuing its multi-year initiative to educate industry employers about compliance, and workers about their legal protections under federal law.