ARLINGTON, Va. – Forty-seven states and the Navajo Nation will receive a total of $8,441,000 in funds to support safety and health training courses and other programs to reduce mining accidents, injuries and illnesses, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration announced today.

APPLETON, Wis. – After long hours in hot kitchens rapidly filling customer orders, many employees at El Azteca restaurants in Appleton, De Pere and Neenah received paychecks with wages below the federal minimum wage and often missing pay for overtime, federal investigators found.

Employer name: Challenge Manufacturing
Kansas City, Missouri

Citations issued: June 23, 2016

Date of action: May 20, 2016

Type of action: Decision and Order

Names of defendants: Flintlock Construction Services LLC

GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico – A consent judgment has been filed in federal district court ordering a Yauco coffee grower to pay $101,484 in back wages to more than 170 year-round farm workers and seasonal coffee pickers who the company underpaid between 2011 and 2014.

YORK, Pa. – The sexual assault of a home health care worker has resulted in a willful citation against one of the nation’s leading providers of pediatric home health and therapy services for medically frail and chronically ill children, after it failed to protect its employees properly from the dangers of workplace violence. 

SAN FRANCISCO – Two separate court rulings in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California are putting more than $1 million in back wages and damages into the hands of dozens of workers denied minimum wage and overtime by the owners of nearly a dozen Bay Area residential care facilities.

Employer’s name: L&M Bag and Supply Company Inc., doing business as L&M Supply Company Inc.

Worksite location: 126 Texas Avenue, San Marcos, Texas 78666

Citations issued: July 5, 2016

Employer name: Lakemoor Dental P.C., Lakemoor, Illinois
Lakemoor Dental of Hainesville, Hainesville, Illinois

Citations issued: June 27, 2016

ROANOKE, Va. – A division of one of the nation’s leading transportation companies has entered into a conciliation agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs  to resolve allegations of race-based hiring discrimination.   

Norfolk Southern Corp. is a federal contractor that, in recent years, has had more than $10 million in contracts with the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of the Navy, U.S. Department of Air Force and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services.

Participants: U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Chippewa Valley Technical College

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. – Federal investigators have determined a Michigan janitor was labeled a troublemaker and subjected to a continuing litany of adverse personnel actions by the Dearborn Heights School District after she complained about exposure to asbestos while cleaning school floor tiles.

Employer name: Wei-Chuan U.S.A. Inc.

Inspection site: 80 Amity St., Jersey City, New Jersey  

Employer name: Johns Manville

Inspection site: 200 West Industrial Blvd., Cleburne, Texas 76033

Citations issued: June 29, 2016

Who: U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration

What: The Mine Safety and Health Administration announced today that federal inspectors issued 89 citations during special impact inspections conducted at 13 coal mines and one metal and nonmetal mine in May.

Where: MSHA conducted special impact inspections at mines in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.

WASHINGTON – In 2015, Congress passed the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act to advance the effectiveness of civil monetary penalties and to maintain their deterrent effect. The new law directs agencies to adjust their penalties for inflation each year using a much more straightforward method than previously available, and requires agencies to publish “catch up” rules this summer to make up for lost time since the last adjustments.

Employer Name: S.J. Louis Construction of Texas LTD

Inspection Site: 2525 North Loop West, Suite 220, Houston, Texas 77433

Citations issued: June 30, 2016

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Departments of Labor and Education today made publicly available the final rules to implement the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, an historic expansion of opportunity for the nation’s job seekers, workers and employers. The regulations deliver on need to modernize the nation’s workforce system and represent a more integrated, job-driven approach to support communities and expand job growth.

WASHINGTON – In its effort to double the number of Registered Apprenticeship programs nationwide, the U.S. Department of Labor announced today the availability of up to 12 ApprenticeshipUSA Industry Intermediary Contracts to national organizations to start or scale apprenticeship programs that meet the occupational and skill needs of their industries.

In the week ending June 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 268,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 1,000 from 259,000 to 258,000. The 4-week moving average was 266,750, unchanged from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 250 from 267,000 to 266,750.