BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a settlement with Unum Life Insurance Co. of America that requires the Portland, Maine-based insurer to change how it administers its proof of good health requirement — referred to as evidence of insurability — for participants in job-based life insurance plans.  

LOUISVILLE, KY – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a court order requiring one of the nation’s most successful thoroughbred horse trainers to pay $243,260 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages after its investigation found the employer’s illegal pay practices denied 163 grooms and hotwalkers at Churchill Downs and at Keeneland racetrack in Lexington of overtime wages.

Date of action:                       May 20, 2024

 Type of action:                      Consent Judgment  

NEWARK, NJ – A federal administrative law judge has affirmed safety violations against United Airlines related to a 2021 incident at Newark Liberty International Airport in which a 737’s tire crushed a technician’s foot as they worked with one of the company’s towing crews.

Read this news release in English. 

BOSTON – Three Rhode Island nail salons in Cumberland, East Greenwich and North Providence and their owner have agreed to pay employees $753,500 in back wages and damages and take corrective actions to resolve violations of the anti-retaliation provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the FLSA’s overtime requirements. 

BOSTON – A federal court in Vermont has concluded that the First Amendment does not protect a Milton, Vermont, excavation contractor and its officials from using social media to retaliate against employees. The decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont is the latest action in ongoing litigation between the Department of Labor and Bevins & Son Inc.

PORTLAND, OR – After a two-day bench trial, the U.S. Department of Labor obtained a federal court judgment that orders the U.S. Postal Service to pay $141,307 in lost wages and damages for emotional distress suffered to a probationary mail carrier who the agency fired after they reported an on-the-job injury to their supervisor and filed an accident report. 

Employers:    Gordo Corp., operating as El Gordito, Belleville, Illinois

                        Patricia and Samuel Gonzalez Lara, owners

Action:           Complaint filing

Date of action:                      May 20, 2024

 Type of action:                     Consent judgment and order 

 Names of defendants:           P & B Heating & Air Conditioning Corp., West Babylon, New York; 

CHICAGO – Joshua Herion, a Waukegan roofing contractor who has routinely endangered employees by ignoring federal workplace standards and penalties assesses for its violations since 2014, has paid $365,576 in fines and interest, after the U.S. Department of Labor moved to seize the employer’s assets as part of the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration debt collection program.

Employers:    MKK Holding Inc., operating as the Blue Fish Asian Cuisine, Dearborn, Michigan

                        Sung Hee Kim

                        Min Kyu Kim

GREENVILLE, MS – The Department of Labor has obtained a federal consent judgment that requires a Greenville cleaning and janitorial service and its owner to pay more than $127,000 in back wages, liquidated damages and compensatory damages following a court’s finding that the two illegally terminated workers for asserting their rights to federally-mandated sick leave. 

CINCINNATI – Zwanenberg Food Group USA Inc., one of the world’s leading suppliers of processed foods, agrees to pay $1.7 million in federal penalties and invest $1.9 million in safety improvements at its Cincinnati plant to resolve hazards found during several investigations by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 

Date of action:                       May 8, 2024

Type of action:                      Denial of employer’s motion to dismiss

Employers:    North Central Community Services Program and Affiliates, operating as North Central Health Care in Wausau, Wisconsin

Action:           Complaint filing

Court:             U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin 

EVANSVILLE, IN – An Evansville diner owner will post a statement for employees and allow a U.S. Department of Labor representative to read its content aloud to inform the employees of their rights to cooperate with federal wage investigators and that the owner is subject to a department lawsuit for retaliating against workers and failing to pay required wages. 

NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment to recover $152,000 in back wages and liquidated damages for nine people employed by a Bronx medical care provider that routinely failed to pay them overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek because their employer wrongly classified them as exempt from certain federal regulations.

SOUTH BEND, IN – The operator of 61 liquor stores in two states must pay $354,633 in back wages and damages to 156 employees, post a statement and play a recorded video message to inform workers of their right to cooperate with federal wage investigators and notify them that he is subject to a federal lawsuit for retaliating against workers and failing to pay required wages, a U.S. District Court has ordered. 

WASHINGTON – An administrative law judge has upheld the findings of a U.S. Department of Labor investigation into the employment practices of a Bowie, Maryland concrete subcontractor and its owners that found the employers wrongly classified workers on a federally funded affordable housing project in the District of Columbia in violation of federal regulations.