NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor and a third-party administrator that provides employee health benefit plans with access to a network of doctors, hospitals and other medical providers have reached an agreement in which the administrator has committed to improve its communications with health plans and to return certain fees the plans paid for claims administration that the department alleged were not fully disclosed to the plans.

Type of Action: Consent order and judgement

Names of Defendants: Ditch Witch Equipment of Tennessee Inc.
Aubrey Needham

BOSTON – A federal appeals court has affirmed that Pan Am Railways, Inc., must pay $260,000 in punitive and compensatory damages to – and take corrective action on behalf of – an employee who was subjected to retaliation for filing a Federal Railroad Safety Act whistleblower complaint.

NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment in federal court requiring a New York City design and construction company and its owners to pay $726,989 in back wages and liquidated damages to 184 employees and take other corrective actions to resolve past overtime and recordkeeping violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

BOSTON – An administrative law judge with the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has ruled that two Massachusetts contractors – A.C. Castle Construction Co. Inc. and Daryl Provencher, doing business as Provencher Home Improvements – were operating as a single employer at a Wenham worksite when three employees were injured in October 2014.

NEW YORK – A federal judge, presiding over a U.S. Department of Labor lawsuit, has found that First Bankers Trust Services Inc. breached its duties of prudence and loyalty to the participants of an employee stock ownership plan sponsored by a New Jersey paving and building site preparation company when it caused the plan to overpay $9.4 million for shares of the company’s stock.

BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor has secured a consent judgment in federal court ordering two Gloucester-based fish processors – Zeus Packing Inc. and Cape Ann Seafood Exchange Inc. – and the companies’ owner Kristian Kristensen to pay over $200,000 in liquidated damages to more than 100 employees to resolve violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

BOSTON – Robert Higgins and Kelvin Mattocks died on Oct. 21, 2016 in Boston, when the approximately 12-foot deep trench in which they were working collapsed, breaking an adjacent fire hydrant supply line and filling the trench with water in a matter of seconds.

BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor and UnWrapped, Inc. have reached a settlement agreement that will allow employees of the Massachusetts sewing factory to recover $890,021 in back wages and liquidated damages to resolve past violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

NEW YORK – A hotel management company and the company which supplied employees to nine of its New York City hotels have agreed to resolve an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division that found violations of the minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co., alleging that the financial institution systematically discriminated against female employees in certain professional positions by compensating them less than their male counterparts. The suit maintains that JPMorgan’s compensation policies and practices violated Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment on the basis of sex.

BOSTON – The National Railroad Passenger Corp., better known as Amtrak, retaliated against a supervisory special agent in its inspector general’s office when he raised concerns about railroad safety, fraud and abuse involving an Amtrak contractor and when he supported a fellow agent’s safety concerns during an internal investigation, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has found.

Date of Action: Jan. 6, 2017

Type of Action: Lawsuit to recover missing retirement and health plan funds

Name of Defendant(s): Central Security Communications Inc.
Chief Executive Officer Robert Millikin
Fiduciary Howard Klinger

MONTPELIER, Vt. – The U.S. Department of Labor is suing the fiduciaries of a Vermont employee stock ownership plan for violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act alleging that First Bankers Trust Services, Inc.’s 2011 purchase of the company on behalf of the ESOP from its two previous owners caused the plan to suffer sizable financial losses.

FAIRMONT, W.Va. – When a co-worker severed part of his thumb in July 2014, a food processor at a beef jerky manufacturing plant acted quickly, helping him apply pressure to the wound and using her cellphone to call 911. Before responders could answer, the company’s owner ordered her to hang up. Two days later, she was terminated.

NEWARK, N.J. — For too long, a hard day's work for United Airlines' baggage handlers at Newark Liberty International Airport meant unnecessary pain and the risk of debilitating injuries caused by lifting customer baggage using awkward postures. From 2011 to January 2015, the airline's baggage handlers reported at least 622 musculoskeletal injuries.

PASSAIC, N.J. – Fifty-five low-wage production workers who spend long work days sewing and loading mattresses at a Passaic mattress refurbishment company will soon receive their share of $292,998 in back wages and liquidated damages after the company entered into a consent judgment with the U.S. Department of Labor.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found a Dudley contract packager failed to inform the agency as required that a temporary worker needed hospitalization after he sustained a serious injury on May 26, 2016. Even worse, the employer failed to contact emergency medical services immediately when the injury occurred.

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The owner of three Buffalo-area gas stations has paid a total of $84,000 in back wages and damages to 41 employees after an investigation by the Buffalo area office of U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

Lakhwinder Gill – the owner of the Angola Food Mart Inc. (Angola), LHP Food Mart Inc. (Buffalo) and Lake Shore Mini Mart, Inc. (Hamburg) gas stations – will also pay $1,000 in civil monetary penalties.

NEW YORK – A Queens-based operator of residential nursing homes and adult care facilities will pay a total of $2,006,796 in back wages and liquidated damages to 844 underpaid employees at five locations in eastern New York following a federal investigation of alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.