WHIPPANY, NJ – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has entered into a conciliation agreement with UniFirst Corp. to resolve alleged gender-based pay discrimination at its Whippany location.

Pursuant to the agreement, UniFirst Corp. will pay $226,341 in back pay and interest to 48 female production department employees. The company has also agreed to review its policies and practices, including the base salaries of production department employees for compensation disparities.

Employer name:       LOOPX LLC 

Investigation site:   146 Industry Road Independence, LA 70443

WARREN, OH ‒ U.S. Department of Labor investigators examining the cause of a March 2023 explosion and fire at a Warren auto battery manufacturing plant and investigating other safety complaints identified 19 safety and health violations after opening four separate inspections in less than a two-week period.

DEDEDO, GUAM – The U.S. Department of Labor has debarred a federal subcontractor on Guam from seeking federally funded contracts after the department’s Wage and Hour Division found the employer shortchanged 29 construction workers at Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz in Dededo and gave investigators falsified records.

Employer:      JRKT Enterprises LLC, operating as Subway

                        12835 Bel-Red Road, Suite 100

ANDOVER, MA – A Wilmington fabricator of advanced alloys failed to adequately protect its employees against exposure to the toxic substance beryllium adequately, a U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspection has revealed. 

CHICAGO – After failing to satisfy repeated requests to cooperate with investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, two business operators in Illinois and Minnesota must now answer to federal courts in Chicago and Minneapolis after the department filed petitions to enforce its administrative subpoenas for records.

WASHINGTON – Deputy Undersecretary of Labor for International Affairs Thea Lee made the following statement today upon the closure of the VU Manufacturas facility in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico:

CHANDLER, MN – A national food manufacturer paid $140,164 in civil money penalties after the U.S. Department of Labor found the company employed at least 11 children – nine of whom operated hazardous machinery – at its meatpacking and food processing facility in Chandler, Minnesota.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – For roofing workers without required fall protection, one wrong or unsteady step can lead to serious, debilitating injuries or worse, a danger to which two Florida contractors exposed 12 workers at a Davie worksite in April 2023. 

SEATTLE – A federal court in Seattle has ruled that Starbucks Corp. must comply with a U.S. Department of Labor administrative subpoena that seeks documents needed in an investigation by the department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards into money spent by the company related to worker organizing campaigns. The court has given the company 14 days to provide the documents.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor announced today the designation of additional federally funded construction projects for participation in the Mega Construction Project Program. 

WASHINGTON – Acting Secretary of Labor Julie A. Su issued the following statement on the September 2023 Employment Situation report:

NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into a settlement agreement with EmblemHealth Inc., a New York-based insurer and third-party administrator of employment-based group health plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, resolving claims that Emblem breached its fiduciary duties under federal law by engaging in a practice known as “cross-plan offsetting.”

READING, PA – The U.S. Department of Labor has found a well-known Pennsylvania candy maker failed to evacuate employees after some reported smelling gas before a March 2023 explosion that killed seven workers at the company’s West Reading facility.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that its Mine Safety and Health Administration is holding its annual Training Resources Applied to Mining conference in Beaver, West Virginia, from Oct. 10 to 12.

CHICAGO – The U.S. Department of Labor has filed suit against a Chicago security company, American Public Defense Inc.

BOISE, ID ‒ The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment in federal court requiring a Boise dog daycare facility and its former owner to pay $50,000 in general and punitive damages for terminating two employees unlawfully for raising workplace safety concerns about being exposed to the risk of the coronavirus amid the pandemic in June 2020.