Employer:                             Happy China Buffet Inc.

                                               2515 Sunset Blvd.

MANCHESTER, NH – A federal investigation has recovered $950,000 in back wages and liquidated damages and $50,000 in punitive damages from a West Lebanon home healthcare business — with a history of unlawful pay practices — that denied overtime wages to 36 employees.

PHOENIX – The U.S. Department of Labor is seeking people now or once employed by a national auto parts distributor and its delivery company who may be owed their share of more than $5.6 million in back wages and damages recovered on behalf of more than 1,300 drivers.

PHILADELPHIA – A federal court in Pennsylvania has ordered a Philadelphia home healthcare staffing agency to pay $197,236 in back wages and liquidated damages to 31 employees after federal investigators found that their employer failed to pay proper overtime.

BURLINGAME, CA – A federal investigation has recovered more than $469,000 in back wages and damages after a Northern California restaurant chain’s pay practices denied 114 workers of their fully earned wages at five Bay-area locations.

PHOENIX – El Departamento de Trabajo de EE.UU. está buscando a trabajadores actuales o anteriores que ahora o alguna vez hayan sido empleados por un distribuidor nacional de piezas de carros y su empresa de entregas a quienes se les debe dar más de $5.6 millones en salarios atrasados y daños que el departamento recuperó para más de 1.300 conductores.

CHANDLER, MN – A federal court in Minnesota has entered a consent judgment that requires a national food manufacturing company to comply with the federal child labor laws at all of its production facilities and warehouses nationwide, and to take significant steps to comply with these laws in the future.

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA - El Departamento de Trabajo de EE. UU. ha recuperado más de $604,000 en concepto de salarios atrasados y daños y perjuicios para 50 integrantes de personal de una agencia de atención a la salud en el hogar de Virginia Beach que solicitaba ilegalmente al personal que renunciara a su derecho a recibir pagos por las horas extras trabajadas.

DETROIT – The operator of 20 Detroit-area restaurants has paid $88,020 in back wages and damages to 127 employees after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found the employer denied workers at 13 locations their full wages and allowed a minor-aged employee to work longer and later than legally permitted.

Employer:  Ard Trucking Co. Inc.

                    4190 Alligator Road, Timmonsville, SC 29161

ATLANTA – In what may be the largest misclassification case in its history, the U.S. Department of Labor has asked a federal court to force a Florida-based customer service provider for major national brands, including Barnes & Noble, Comcast, Disney and Walgreens, to pay back wages and liquidated damages to more than 22,000 workers after investigators found the employer misclassified employees as independent contractors and denied them their legally required minimum wage and overtime pay.

INDIANOLA, MS – In the summer of 2022, U.S. Department of Labor leaders heard from a group of Black farmworkers in the Mississippi Delta about allegations of abuse and exploitation of Black farmworkers in some of the nation’s poorest counties, including egregious violations of their workplace rights.

Who:               U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division

                        U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau

BOSTON - El Departamento de Trabajo ha recuperado $771,022 en salarios atrasados y $61,215 en concepto de daños y perjuicios para 47 personas empleadas en una empresa de paisajismo en Haverhill que no cumplía con los requisitos del programa federal de visas de trabajo H-2B y la Ley de Normas Justas de Trabajo.

MINNEAPOLIS – Following a five-day jury trial, a federal district court in Minneapolis has awarded $254,628 in back wages and liquidated damages to 21 drivers after the U.S. Department of Labor determined their employer, a non-emergency medical transportation company, misclassified them as independent contractors denying them overtime pay.

BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $771,022 in back wages and $61,215 in liquidated damages for 47 workers of a Haverhill landscaping company after the employer failed to comply with requirements of the federal H-2B worker program and the Fair Labor Standards Act. The H-2B Worker Program permits businesses to employ temporary visa workers for limited periods of time.

Who:              

U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division
U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Tennessee Department of Health Division of Family Health and Wellness

What: “Working Mothers: What to Expect from Your Employer When You’re Expecting” webinar

Employer:                                  Drevo Inc.

                                                    55 Brooklyn Lane

HERMITAGE, TN – A federal court in Nashville has affirmed the findings of an investigation that determined a Tennessee security and traffic control services provider and its owner misclassified 105 workers as independent contractors, including some who worked as security guards in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

SCHAUMBURG, IL – An administrative law judge has ordered a Schaumburg residential and commercial swimming pool company to pay $312,561 in back wages to 26 workers, employed under a federal guest worker visa program, after the U.S. Department of Labor found the employer failed to comply with the H-2B guest worker visa program.