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.

YOUNGSTOWN, OH – A federal judge ordered American Made Bags LLC in Akron and its owner to pay a total of $189,756 – $94,893 in back wages and an equal amount in damages – to 48 employees after two separate federal investigations found numerous illegal pay practices.

KANSAS CITY, MO – After long days spent toiling in fields under a hot Missouri sun, immigrant workers returned to what was once a county jail where their employer housed them in unsanitary living conditions and added to their misery by failing to pay them the wages they earned under their contract.

CHICAGO – The U.S. Department of Labor has asked a federal court in Illinois to hold fiduciaries of the United Employee Benefit Fund, along with its counsel, liable for more than $2.8 million in losses after an investigation found they allowed the misappropriation of the fund’s assets. A Chicago-based multiple employer welfare arrangement, UEBF provides life insurance benefits to about 63 nationwide employer-sponsored benefit plans.

LAUREL RUN, PA – An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor recovered $221,307 in back wages and damages for 32 nursing staff employees of a Luzerne County treatment center found to be intentionally shortchanging workers of their overtime pay repeatedly.

Date of action:                       Feb. 22, 2022

Type of action:                      Complaint

FORT WAYNE, IN – The operator of seven Fort Wayne area restaurants shortchanged 17 of its managers when the salary it paid was determined to be insufficient to relieve the employer of its overtime obligations. This led to a violation of overtime pay requirements when employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation has found.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Every day, millions of careworkers tend to the vital needs of people in communities nationwide. They work long hours and put themselves at risk amid the pandemic, yet they are among the nation’s lowest paid workers. Their jobs are made even more difficult when employers fail to pay them all their rightfully earned wages.

DES MOINES, IA – The U.S. Department of Labor recovered $125,000 in back wages for 34 workers after an investigation found a subcontractor paid workers the incorrect prevailing wage rate. The employer paid workers the pipe layer rate when they performed plumbing work on a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development apartment project under federal contract in Des Moines.

HOUSTON – Following a federal court order, the U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $139,068 in back wages and liquidated damages owed for 21 workers whose Houston employer misclassified them as independent contractors and failed to pay overtime wages.

HOUSTON – Tras una orden de un tribunal federal, el Departamento de Trabajo de EE.UU. ha recuperado $139,068 en salarios atrasados y daños y perjuicios adeudados a 21 trabajadores cuyo empleador de Houston clasificó erróneamente como contratistas independientes y no pagó las horas extras.

BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited the employer involved in a February 2021 double fatality at a downtown Boston worksite and his successor company again for failing to provide employees with essential and required safeguards, this time at an East Boston residential construction site.  

BOSTON – An order issued by a federal judge in Massachusetts, has fully granted the U.S. Department of Labor’s motion for summary judgment regarding numerous violations of federal law by a Weymouth restaurant and its owner that deprived workers of their hard-earned wages and tips.

SAN JUAN, PR – The U.S. Department of Labor is seeking 287 former or current officers of the Puerto Rico Police Department, who worked for the department between June 13, 2010, and Aug. 31, 2014, and are owed back wages as part of a 2016 federal court order.

INDIANAPOLIS – An Indianapolis employer assigned home healthcare workers to shifts at two related companies but failed to combine the hours, denying them earned overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours per week for the same employer.