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. 

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. 

Date of action:                       May 8, 2024

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

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. 

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.

CHICAGO –The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a federal consent order and judgment requiring three service providers of the United Employee Benefit Fund a Chicago-based multiple employer welfare arrangement, to restore $883,333 to the fund and pay $176,666 in penalties for violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, NJ – Two related North Jersey construction contractor companies – Primetime Construction LLC and its subsidiary Primetime Contractors LLC of Paterson – have agreed to pay $215,000 in penalties and undertake several significant safety measures to resolve numerous safety violations found at five Paterson construction worksites in 2021, as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Employers:    Medhealth Suppliers & Providers Inc, operating as Evergreen Place, Evergreen Place 2 

                        and Bedford Home, Lansing, Michigan

SIOUX CITY, IA – The Department of Labor has entered into a consent order and judgment, approved by a federal court in Iowa on May 6, 2024, with a Tennessee cleaning contractor that requires the employer to pay $649,304 in civil money penalties, hire a third-party to review and implement company policies to prevent the employment of children in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and establish a program for reporting concerns

TROY, NY – An upstate New York court accepted a mine manager’s guilty plea today to manslaughter in the second degree, a Class C felony. Anthony Valente, a mine manager at a Grafton limestone quarry, admitted to causing Darren Miller’s death in October 2022 by recklessly disregarding and overriding safety features of a crane Valente was operating, which resulted in a piece of the crane striking Miller, a 35-year-old mechanic, and causing his death. The manager agreed to serve a six-month jail sentence and five years of probation.

Date of action:           April 15, 2024

Type of action:          Consent judgment and order  

CAMDEN, NJ – The U.S. Department of Labor has reached a settlement agreement with one of the East Coast's largest auto recyclers and used parts suppliers affirming 35 citations issued for workplace safety violations at its Camden facility and assessing related penalties.

SEATTLE - Un tribunal federal ha ordenado a un productor de coronas navideñas para su venta por grandes comercios, incluidos Costco, Publix, Target, Trader Joe’s, Walmart y Wegmans, pagar $1.85 millones en salarios atrasados y daños a casi 700 trabajadores después de que el Departamento de Trabajo de Estados Unidos descubriera que el empleador no pagó los salarios de horas extras requeridos y vulneró los derechos de los trabajadores migrantes y de temporada.