HAMMOND, IN – The owner and manager of a Hobart restaurant must pay $78,799 in back wages and liquidated damages to 13 workers after federal investigators found they coerced the employees to return monies they agreed to pay following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division in 2021.

Date of Action:          Jan. 8, 2024

Type of Action:         Complaint

Defendants:               Jones Dykstra and Associates Inc.

BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a complaint in federal court in Boston, alleging that 25 Massachusetts skilled nursing facilities in 21 communities intentionally withheld overtime wages to at least 624 employees and failed to maintain accurate employment records.

TIGERTON, WI – A U.S. Department of Labor follow-up inspection of Tigerton Lumber Co. found that the Wisconsin sawmill continued to expose many of its employees to amputation and other dangers. The inspection was part of a federal program for severe violators. The company was deemed a severe violator in 2019 after an investigation into how an employee suffered fatal injuries in 2018. 

MANCHESTER, NH – El Departamento de Trabajo de EE. UU. ha recuperado $184,008 en propinas, salarios atrasados y daños y perjuicios para 56 empleados de dos restaurantes en New Hampshire a quienes les negaron el total de sus salarios y sus propinas, después de una investigación realizada por la División de Horas y Salarios del departamento. 

POWELL, TN – The nation’s largest Bojangles franchise owner will make enterprise-wide changes to improve working conditions for minor-aged employees and compliance with federal labor regulations at their 118 locations in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee after entering an enhanced compliance agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor. 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of up to $12.4 million in grant funding for three organizations to reduce child and forced labor in Mexico and support migrant workers. 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a final rule to help employers and workers better understand when a worker qualifies as an employee and when they may be considered an independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

MANCHESTER, NH – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $184,008 in tips, back wages and liquidated damages for 56 restaurant employees denied their full wages and tips by the operators of two New Hampshire restaurants after an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division. 

DOTHAN, AL – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $127,249 in back wages and liquidated damages for 26 workers at an aviation maintenance shop employed by a Dothan staffing company that misclassified them as independent contractors and denied overtime wages. 

HASTINGS, NE: El Departamento de Trabajo de los EE. UU. ha recuperado $230,000 para 545 trabajadores de una planta de procesamiento de carne de Hastings a los que se denegó una compensación por el trabajo previo y posterior al turno, como ponerse y quitarse el equipo de protección y el tiempo de limpieza del equipo.

Read this in English. 

Empleadores:       La Catrina 1 Inc., el nombre comercial es La Catrina Tacos & Tequila Bar

Read this in Spanish. 

Employers:                            La Catrina 1 Inc., operating as La Catrina Tacos & Tequila Bar

COLUMBUS, MT – A federal court has ordered the operator of a Columbus residential care facility to pay $332,972 in back wages and liquidated damages to 35 resident workers after the U.S. Department of Labor found the employer underpaid the workers and violated federal law protecting workers with disabilities.

BOSTON – The Massachusetts Board of Building Regulations and Standards has revoked William Trahant’s construction supervisor’s license for at least two years as the result of a complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Labor citing seven separate citations issued to his company since 2014 for violating federal fall safety regulations, as well as his continued failure to pay more than $300,000 in related penalties.

HASTINGS, NE – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $230,000 for 545 workers at a Hastings meat processing plant that were denied compensation for pre- and post-shift work such as donning and removing protective gear and equipment cleaning time.

WASHINGTON – Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Charlotte A. Burrows today issued a joint statement to mark the first anniversary of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act:

Employers:    All Phase Roofing Inc.

                        1313 S. Killian Drive, Lake Park, FL 33403

                        Lennar Homes LLC

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su issued the following statement on the December 2023 Employment Situation report: 

“Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the American economy added 216,000 jobs in December, and the unemployment rate held steady at 3.7 percent, continuing the longest stretch of unemployment below four percent in more than 50 years. Today’s numbers demonstrate an economy that’s growing at a strong and steady pace, which was a consistent story throughout 2023. 

APPLETON, WI – Federal workplace safety inspectors found an Appleton contractor once again ignoring the dangers of allowing employees to do residential roof work without required fall protection equipment and training designed to protect workers from the industry’s deadliest hazard: falls from elevation.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, of 1,015 construction workers who suffered fatal on-the-job injuries in 2021, 379 of them died in falls.