WASHINGTON –The U.S. Department of Labor will begin a series of events in August to highlight the importance of maternal health and workplace protections for expectant and new mothers as the country marks National Breastfeeding Month.  

NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Department of Labor has found that the wages of hundreds of painters and drywall workers employed by a Louisiana contractor on construction projects, including work at New Orleans’ Superdome, were tackled for a loss when their employer misclassified the workers as independent contractors, a common industry violation.

GRAND ISLAND, NE – A 20-year-old worker’s attempt at clearing a jam in an industrial cardboard baler at a Grand Island waste disposal company turned tragic when the worker fell into the baler, became caught and suffered severe amputation injuries. OSHA alleges the employer disregarded federal regulations designed to prevent such tragedies.

NEW ORLEANS – A federal investigation into the bounced payroll checks of 10 construction workers renovating a nursing home in Panama City, Florida, found the employer who issued the bad checks had also denied more than 800 workers overtime wages by misclassifying them as independent contractors.

In the week ending July 30, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 260,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 2,000 from 256,000 to 254,000. The 4-week moving average was 254,750, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 500 from 249,250 to 248,750.

CLEVELAND, TN – El Departamento de Trabajo de los Estados Unidos recuperó $374,493 en concepto de salarios y daños y perjuicios para 62 trabajadores de la construcción empleados por un contratista de Cleveland que les negó el pago de horas extras que exige la ley federal, y puso en peligro la seguridad de un niño de 11 años que había empleado como jardinero con permiso para operar maquinaria peligrosa.

NEW YORK –Trustees to the Teamsters Local 272 Welfare Fund in New York City have agreed to amend the fund to resolve a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor, regarding a fund requirement that participants bear 90 percent of the cost of medical and pharmacy claims above certain annual thresholds.

CHICAGO – With the construction season in full swing, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and more than 10,000 voluntary employee members of the Associated General Contractors of Chicagoland are working together to protect industry workers from common hazards and avoid adding to the hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers injured, some fatally, each year.

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S.

ATLANTA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration signed a strategic partnership with DPR Construction to protect workers’ safety during construction of the Peachtree Corners Campus Development Phase II project in Atlanta.

CLEVELAND, TN – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $374,493 wages and liquidated damages for 62 construction workers employed by a Cleveland contractor that denied them overtime wages when required by federal law, and jeopardized the safety of an 11-year-old by employing them as a groundskeeper allowed to operate dangerous equipment.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of $20,520,000 in grant funding to Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina to improve the delivery of unemployment insurance services to people facing obstacles to access.

HONOLULU – A U.S. Department of Labor investigation has recovered $156,837 in back wages from a Honolulu contractor who paid 46 workers lower wages than the law allows for the type of work they performed under federal contracts awarded by U.S. Marine Corps, Navy, Army and Coast Guard in Hawaii.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded a $7 million cooperative agreement to increase worker protections to reduce child labor, forced labor and other forms of labor exploitation in the chile pepper and tomato sectors operating in the Mexican states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Guerrero and Oaxaca.

LOUISVILLE, KY – The U.S. Department of Labor recovered $130,879 in back wages and liquidated damages for 68 workers after a Beattyville-based food services contractor failed to pay their full wages by incorrectly applying overtime rules for managers.

Employer:                                          Brito Enterprises of Tampa Inc.

Participant:     Onward Energy, SWG Arapahoe LLC

Address:         2601 S. Platte River Drive, 

                        Denver, CO 80223

BATON ROUGE, LA – A Baton Rouge roofing contractor – who ignored federal safety inspectors’ February 2022 warnings that not complying with required fall protection standards exposed their workers to serious dangers – now faces the consequences after an investigation into a worker’s deadly fall at a different work site two months later found the incident could have been prevented if protective devices were used.

COLUMBUS, OH – One of the nation’s largest discount retailers continues to expose employees to the risk of injuries by flagrantly ignoring workplace safety regulations, this time with hazardous conditions found at two Ohio locations, in Maple Heights and Columbus.

WAPAKONETA, OH – Federal safety investigators found workers at General Aluminum Mfg. Co.’s Wapakoneta site exposed to machine hazards, just 36 days after they found similar violations at the aluminum vehicle parts manufacturer’s facility in Conneaut.