COLLEGEVILLE, PA – A Collegeville restaurant and its owners must pay $268,660 in back wages, liquidated damages and punitive damages to satisfy a consent judgment obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor after an investigation into the employers’ illegal pay practices.

WILLIAMSBURG, VA – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment in a Virginia federal court to recover $205,180 in back wages and liquidated damages from a Williamsburg restaurant that shortchanged 62 employees of their overtime wages intentionally.

Date of action:                      Sept. 28, 2023

Type of action:                     Consent Judgment and Order

Employers:      Duckels Construction Inc., Fred Duckels, owner 

Actions:           U.S. Mine Safety and Health Act consent order and judgment 

Court:               U.S. District Court of Colorado 

BOSTON – A federal court in Boston has entered a consent judgment ordering a New Jersey-based framing contractor to pay 61 construction employees $283,492 in back wages and liquidated damages and $46,507 in punitive damages to two former employees, allegedly fired for cooperating with U.S. Department of Labor investigators. 

Employers:    Great Lakes Care Companions Inc., Juan G. Salazar, owner

Actions:          Fair Labor Standards Act consent order and judgment

Courts:           U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan 

HEBRON, KY – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a federal consent judgment that requires the operator of a Hebron warehouse and distribution center to stop employing children illegally and to not violate federal child labor laws in the future.

CHICAGO – After failing to satisfy repeated requests to cooperate with investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, two business operators in Illinois and Minnesota must now answer to federal courts in Chicago and Minneapolis after the department filed petitions to enforce its administrative subpoenas for records.

CHANDLER, MN – A national food manufacturer paid $140,164 in civil money penalties after the U.S. Department of Labor found the company employed at least 11 children – nine of whom operated hazardous machinery – at its meatpacking and food processing facility in Chandler, Minnesota.

SEATTLE – A federal court in Seattle has ruled that Starbucks Corp. must comply with a U.S. Department of Labor administrative subpoena that seeks documents needed in an investigation by the department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards into money spent by the company related to worker organizing campaigns. The court has given the company 14 days to provide the documents.

NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into a settlement agreement with EmblemHealth Inc., a New York-based insurer and third-party administrator of employment-based group health plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, resolving claims that Emblem breached its fiduciary duties under federal law by engaging in a practice known as “cross-plan offsetting.”

CHICAGO – The U.S. Department of Labor has filed suit against a Chicago security company, American Public Defense Inc.

BOISE, ID ‒ The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment in federal court requiring a Boise dog daycare facility and its former owner to pay $50,000 in general and punitive damages for terminating two employees unlawfully for raising workplace safety concerns about being exposed to the risk of the coronavirus amid the pandemic in June 2020.

WAYNE, NJ – The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into a settlement agreement with a New Jersey building contractor who allowed their subcontractors’ employees to work in close proximity to high-voltage power lines at a Paterson work site in 2021 and 2022.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The U.S. Department of Labor has filed suit against the operator and owner of four western Michigan 7-Eleven convenience stores after an investigation found payroll records were inaccurate, paid employees “off the books” and failed to pay them overtime.

WEST COVINA, CA – A federal court has entered default judgments that require the operators of La Puente poultry processing plant to pay more than $1 million after the U.S. Department of Labor found the employers deliberately denied overtime wages earned by 113 workers and tried to hide the wage theft.

WEST COVINA, CA – Un tribunal federal emitió sentencias que requieren que los operadores de la planta procesadora de aves de corral en La Puente paguen más de $1 millón después de que el Departamento de Trabajo de EE.UU. encontró que los empleadores negaron deliberadamente salarios por horas extra a 113 trabajadores y trataron de ocultar el robo de salario.

KANSAS CITY, MO – An Oklahoma construction contractor entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay $370,660 in criminal and civil penalties to avoid federal prosecution on one count of ignoring federal safety regulations that resulted in a worker fatality in St. Joseph in 2019.

CHICAGO – A Chicago food service provider for major airlines has agreed to reimburse $134,222 to participants in the company’s employee health plan after federal investigators found the employer improperly charged employees deductibles for certain diagnostic tests and wrongly imposed tobacco surcharges.

MILTON, PA – U.S. Department of Labor investigations found a Pennsylvania manufacturer of steel containers exposed employees to a wide range of safety and health hazards at its Milton facility.