BIRMINGHAM, AL – An Alabama plastics manufacturing company has pleaded guilty to a willful violation of workplace safety requirements as part of an agreement filed in federal court spurred initially by a U.S. Department of Labor investigation into a 45-year-old worker’s death in Helena in August 2017.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Alabama prosecuted the case.

NEW YORK – The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting a Patterson nursery and garden supply business, and its president from threatening its employees and obstructing a U.S. Department of Labor investigation.

Date of action:                       Jan. 17, 2023

Type of action:                      U.S. Department of Labor complaint

Names of defendants:           Pigeon Forge Hospitality LLC; Nimesh Patel

MINNEAPOLIS – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment in federal court requiring a Minneapolis private in-home care provider to pay $1.6 million in back wages and damages, as part of the department’s effort to recover unpaid overtime wages for 136 healthcare workers in the Twin-Cities area.

CARBONDALE, IL – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a federal court order requiring a Carbondale café to pay 31 workers $98,400 in back wages and damages for operating an illegal tip pool, almost six months after a jury awarded the workers $4,900 – just 10 percent of their back wages – in what the department alleged was an error based on the jury’s instructions and how they interpreted the evidence at trial.

DENVER – The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a complaint in federal court against the operator of a Firestone franchise restaurant who allegedly fired two workers whom the employer believed complained to the department’s Wage and Hour Division about the employer’s pay practice and participated in the investigation that followed.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A federal court has ordered the owner of a Haslett assisted living facility to pay $15,238 in back wages and damages to six healthcare workers, whom the employer failed to pay during meal breaks when their duties forced them to work during or through the breaks.

MADISON, WI – Five years after leaving their Guatemalan and Mexican homes for jobs promised by owners of two Wisconsin forestry companies and discovering they would not receive the wages, benefits and types of jobs described in their contracts, 263 workers will finally receive $1.1 million in unpaid wages after extensive federal investigations. 

NEW YORK – An administrative law judge with the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has affirmed U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration citations and $24,290 in penalties issued to Eustis Cable Enterprises Ltd., a Brookfield, Vermont, telecommunications contractor, following the death of an employee at an Andover, New York, worksite.

Date of action:  Nov. 21, 2022

Type of action:  Anti-retaliation complaint

Court: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky

Names of defendants: Ike’s Artisan Pizza LLC, owner Isaac Martin Ausmus

Fecha de la acción:   21 de noviembre de 2022

Tipo de acción:   Denuncia contra represalias

Tribunal: Tribunal Distrital de EE. UU. por el Distrito Este de Kentucky

CHICAGO – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs entered into a consent decree with Rosemount Inc. of Chanhassen, Minnesota, and its subsidiary, Rosemount Specialty Products LLC.

LINCOLN, NE – A federal court in Nebraska today entered a consent order and judgment in which Packers Sanitation Services Inc. LTD – one of the nation’s largest providers of food safety sanitation services – agreed to immediately comply with child labor laws at all facilities nationwide and to take significant steps to ensure future compliance, including employing an outside compliance specialist.

PHOENIX – The U.S. Department of Labor is seeking current and former employees of a Tempe construction contractor who may be owed a share of more than $2.6 million in overtime wages and damages recovered after a federal court approved a consent judgment in response to litigation and a long-standing investigation by the department.

PHOENIX – El Departamento de Trabajo de EE. UU. está buscando a empleados actuales y anteriores de un contratista de construcción de Tempe, Arizona, a quienes se les debe entregar parte de los más de $2.6 millones en salarios por horas extra y compensación por daños recuperados después de que un tribunal federal aprobó un dictamen por consentimiento luego de un largo litigio e investigación por parte del departamento.

BRAINTREE, MA – A Quincy-based roofing contractor exposed workers on the roofs of a garage and house in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood to potentially fatal falls from heights between seven and 21 feet, U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors found.

WASHINGTON – A federal court has found Birdsboro Kosher Farms Corp. in contempt for failing to pay $162,359 in penalties after an inspection by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found numerous safety hazards, including willful, serious and repeat violations.

MANCHESTER, NH – A federal court has ordered a North Conway restaurant to pay a total of $148,128 – $74,064 in tips and back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages – after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found the employers kept workers’ tips illegally and failed to pay them overtime wages when required by law.

BOSTON – A federal court has ordered two Boston restaurants to pay $195,680 in back wages and liquidated damages after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found the employers willfully failed to pay some employees the minimum wage and overtime compensation the law requires. The department also levied a $14,980 civil money penalty.

Date of Action:          Oct. 11, 2022

Type of Action:         Employee Retirement Income Security Act consent judgement

Company/Owners:    Paramount Industrial Machining Inc., Maxwell Schwartz, Sheila Rossmann