July 7, 2016

Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report

In the week ending July 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 254,000, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 268,000 to 270,000. The 4-week moving average was 264,750, a decrease of 2,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 266,750 to 267,250.

July 7, 2016

San Fernando Valley recycler to pay more than $45K in back wages, damages to four workers following labor investigation

Employer: Odelsi Recycling, a company that purchases recyclable materials such as aluminum, glass
and plastic bottles from individuals in California’s San Fernando Valley.

Location: 11045 Glenoaks Blvd., Pacoima
13426 Osborne St., Arleta

July 6, 2016

$8.4M awarded to provide safety and health training to miners in 47 states, Navajo Nation to reduce accidents, injuries and illnesses

ARLINGTON, Va. – Forty-seven states and the Navajo Nation will receive a total of $8,441,000 in funds to support safety and health training courses and other programs to reduce mining accidents, injuries and illnesses, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration announced today.

July 6, 2016

El Azteca restaurant group to pay $700K in back wages, damages to 129 workers at four Wisconsin eateries

APPLETON, Wis. – After long hours in hot kitchens rapidly filling customer orders, many employees at El Azteca restaurants in Appleton, De Pere and Neenah received paychecks with wages below the federal minimum wage and often missing pay for overtime, federal investigators found.

July 6, 2016

OSHA finds multiple hazards at Missouri auto parts manufacturing facility

Employer name: Challenge Manufacturing
Kansas City, Missouri

Citations issued: June 23, 2016

July 6, 2016

Judge upholds OSHA citations and $249k in penalties against New York contractor for scaffold hazards at Manhattan hotel construction site

Date of action: May 20, 2016

Type of action: Decision and Order

Names of defendants: Flintlock Construction Services LLC

July 5, 2016

Court orders Yauco coffee grower to pay $101k in back wages to more than 170 underpaid employees after US Labor Department investigation, litigation

GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico – A consent judgment has been filed in federal district court ordering a Yauco coffee grower to pay $101,484 in back wages to more than 170 year-round farm workers and seasonal coffee pickers who the company underpaid between 2011 and 2014.

July 5, 2016

Federal inspectors cite national pediatric health care provider for failing to protect home care workers from physical, sexual assault

YORK, Pa. – The sexual assault of a home health care worker has resulted in a willful citation against one of the nation’s leading providers of pediatric home health and therapy services for medically frail and chronically ill children, after it failed to protect its employees properly from the dangers of workplace violence. 

July 5, 2016

Court rulings provide more than $1M in back wages, damages for more than two dozen Bay Area workers

SAN FRANCISCO – Two separate court rulings in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California are putting more than $1 million in back wages and damages into the hands of dozens of workers denied minimum wage and overtime by the owners of nearly a dozen Bay Area residential care facilities.

July 5, 2016

OSHA fines landscaping products manufacturer $66K for repeat, serious violations after complaints of unsafe working conditions

Employer’s name: L&M Bag and Supply Company Inc., doing business as L&M Supply Company Inc.

Worksite location: 126 Texas Avenue, San Marcos, Texas 78666

Citations issued: July 5, 2016

July 5, 2016

OSHA investigation finds two Lakemoor Dental locations failed to protect employees from risks of bloodborne pathogens

Employer name: Lakemoor Dental P.C., Lakemoor, Illinois
Lakemoor Dental of Hainesville, Hainesville, Illinois

Citations issued: June 27, 2016

July 5, 2016

Division of Norfolk Southern settles charges of hiring discrimination at Roanoke facility in agreement with US Labor Department

ROANOKE, Va. – A division of one of the nation’s leading transportation companies has entered into a conciliation agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs  to resolve allegations of race-based hiring discrimination.   

June 30, 2016

OSHA orders Dearborn Heights School District to pay $193K to employee punished for warning of asbestos exposures at city school

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. – Federal investigators have determined a Michigan janitor was labeled a troublemaker and subjected to a continuing litany of adverse personnel actions by the Dearborn Heights School District after she complained about exposure to asbestos while cleaning school floor tiles.

June 30, 2016

OSHA cites food manufacturer after worker dies after 24-foot fall at the company’s Jersey City warehouse

Employer name: Wei-Chuan U.S.A. Inc.

Inspection site: 80 Amity St., Jersey City, New Jersey  

June 30, 2016

OSHA fines Johns Manville after employee suffers hand amputation

Employer name: Johns Manville

Inspection site: 200 West Industrial Blvd., Cleburne, Texas 76033

Citations issued: June 29, 2016

June 30, 2016

US Mine Safety and Health Administration announces results of special impact inspections in May 2016

Who: U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration

What: The Mine Safety and Health Administration announced today that federal inspectors issued 89 citations during special impact inspections conducted at 13 coal mines and one metal and nonmetal mine in May.

Where: MSHA conducted special impact inspections at mines in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.

June 30, 2016

US Department of Labor announces new rules to adjust civil penalty amounts

WASHINGTON – In 2015, Congress passed the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act to advance the effectiveness of civil monetary penalties and to maintain their deterrent effect. The new law directs agencies to adjust their penalties for inflation each year using a much more straightforward method than previously available, and requires agencies to publish “catch up” rules this summer to make up for lost time since the last adjustments.

June 30, 2016

OSHA fines underground utility contractor $52K for exposing workers to repeat, serious excavation hazards

Employer Name: S.J. Louis Construction of Texas LTD

Inspection Site: 2525 North Loop West, Suite 220, Houston, Texas 77433

Citations issued: June 30, 2016

June 30, 2016

Obama administration announces new regulations to strengthen employment and training opportunities for millions of Americans

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Departments of Labor and Education today made publicly available the final rules to implement the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, an historic expansion of opportunity for the nation’s job seekers, workers and employers. The regulations deliver on need to modernize the nation’s workforce system and represent a more integrated, job-driven approach to support communities and expand job growth.