DETROIT – A federal judge has found Independent Home Care of Michigan LLC and its owners Mary Clark and Kathryn Flick liable to pay 23 home healthcare workers a total of $93,331 – representing $46,665 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages– after the company failed to pay companion workers overtime wages.

CLEVELAND, OH – A North Royalton businessman who failed to pay payroll taxes to the IRS and embezzled health care premiums deducted from his employees’ checks, will spend the next two years in prison and pay restitution of $558,697 to the IRS and $3,807 to the participants of his companies’ health care plan.

Date of actions:         May 5 and May 27, 2022

Type of action:          Contempt Orders

Names of defendants:  Valley Wide Plastering Inc.; Jesse Guerrero; Rose Guerrero; J.R. Guerrero

MANCHESTER, NH – A federal court has entered a consent order against a Salem landscaping contractor, operating in southern New Hampshire and northeastern Massachusetts, which requires the New Hampshire-based contractor to pay a total of $283,020 – $141,510 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages – to 19 workers to resolve violations of the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Date of action:                       May 10, 2022

Type of action:                       Stipulated Settlement Agreement

CAMBRIA, WI – A federal grand jury has indicted the operator and six management officials of a Cambria corn mill – where a May 31, 2017, explosion killed five workers and injured 15 others – on nine criminal counts, including two counts related to willful violations of federal workplace safety standards for grain handling.

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court has ruled unanimously that the operator of a Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, coal mine violated the federal Mine Safety and Health Act more than a decade ago by giving underground miners advance notice that mine inspectors were conducting an inspection.

MOUNT VERNON, IL – In two separate incidents on consecutive days in November 2021, three workers at a southern Illinois tire plant suffered severe injuries in incidents associated with a mixer containing a combustible dust and a flammable gas, guarding moving equipment and the failure to implement and enforce procedures to control the unintentional energization of equipment during servicing.

PROVIDENCE, RI – Four Ocean State medical facilities in Providence and West Greenwich, and their owner and operator, will pay $175,000 in back wages and liquidated damages to 103 employees to resolve violations of federal overtime requirements, after an investigation and litigation by the U.S. Department of Labor. The employer will also pay $50,000 in civil money penalties.

CHICAGO – The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a complaint and has asked a federal court to issue a temporary restraining order against a Huntley restaurant and its owners for retaliating and intimidating workers illegally during an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division.

LYNDHURST, NJ – Week after week, a worker at Advantix Logistics Corp. kept finding paychecks short of their expectations. After several complaints to a supervisor, the company responded by firing the worker. When the worker raised concerns that the final paycheck did not include all wages earned, the company threatened continued retaliation.

EAST ORANGE, NJ – The U.S. Department of Labor and an East Orange medical transport services contractor has reached a settlement agreement after a federal investigation found violations of the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act.

BAYVILLE, NJ - Following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, an administrative law judge ordered a commercial landscaping company based in Bayville to pay 47 temporary landscaping workers $181,670.19 in back wages. The employer will also pay $38,329.81 in civil money penalties.

Date of action: April 4, 2022

Type of action: Complaint and motion for temporary restraining order

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

Names of defendants: Z4 Fuels LLC, doing business as Chavies Food Mart, and owner, Parvez Khutliwala, and manager, Rahim Ali

Date of action:           April 1, 2022

Type of action:           Preliminary Injunction

Names of defendants:  Chinatown Supermarket LLC

WASHINGTON – Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda today issued a statement on the Department of Labor’s filing of an amicus in a case now before the National Labor Relations Board. The brief argues the validity of a confidentiality provision in a mandatory arbitration agreement imposed on employees by Ralph’s Grocery Company.

“Confidentiality agreements pose a direct threat to effective enforcement of the country’s worker protection laws.

ALBANY, NY – The U.S. Department of Labor filed suit against a New York ophthalmologist and his practice in Amsterdam for allegedly firing an employee who raised concerns about the practice’s failure to implement state-mandated protocols to protect employees from COVID-19, and later filed complaints with state health officials.

HARTFORD, CT – A federal court entered a consent order that requires two Fairfield County restaurants and their owners – who used threats of retaliation to coerce nine workers to kick back thousands of dollars of back wages and liquidated damages recovered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division – to pay $150,000 to those employees.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division signed a memorandum of understanding today to strengthen the partnership between the two agencies to protect workers from employer collusion, ensure compliance with the labor laws and promote competitive labor markets and worker mobility.

BOSTON – Following an investigation and litigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, a federal court ordered a Holbrook tree service company and its owner – who threatened a former employee who participated in an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division – to pay the worker $25,000 in punitive damages.