Employer name: MTD Consumer Group

Inspection site: 979 South Conwell Ave., Willard, Ohio

Citations issued: March 23, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Toledo Area Office cited MTD Consumer Group for one willful, one serious and one other-than-serious violation.

Employer: Joined, Inc., an academic recruitment, technology and curriculum services provider

Sites: 2010 Main St., Suite 550 Irvine, California

Investigation findings: Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that Joined, Inc. missed paying wages to staff in several pay periods. The company blamed clients who failed to pay for services rendered and a slowdown in company business.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a $1.9 million grant competition to recruit, train and retain women in high-skill occupations, such as advanced manufacturing, transportation, energy, construction and information technology. The Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations program will fund the grants.

Employer name: Plank Construction Co. Inc., a construction general contractor in Schenectady, NewYork

Inspection site: Wards Lane, Dutch Village, Menands, New York

Investigation findings: Plank Construction Co. Inc. employees were installing a storm sewer system as part of the construction of new buildings at Dutch Village. On Oct. 3, 2015, the 8-foot deep trench in which they were working collapsed onto one of the employees. He was extricated and hospitalized.

Participants: U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division
Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries

Employer name: The Western Sugar Cooperative, a sugar beets grower’s cooperative in Denver

Inspection site: 3020 State Ave., Billings, Montana

Citations issued: Five serious and four repeat.

ATHENS, Ga. – The life of a 39-year-old HVAC installer who fell through a roof skylight ended suddenly because his employer failed to put proper workplace protections in place, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has found.

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.