WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration today signed an agreement with an alliance of trade organizations, labor unions and industry stakeholders to better protect people who do trenching and excavation work.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor urges small business owners and representatives from local government entities to join the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other government agencies for a series of upcoming discussions on the potential impacts of a workplace heat standard on small businesses.

PROVIDENCE, RI – For the third time in three months, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited one of the nation’s largest discount retail chains, Dollar Tree Inc. for allowing hazardous conditions at one of its Rhode Island stores, this one in Coventry.

HACKENSACK, NJ – Three northern New Jersey supermarkets have paid more than $1.8 million in back wages and damages after federal investigators found the employers deliberately failed to pay required overtime rates to 226 employees who worked overtime at stores in Hackensack, Oakland and Waldwick.

In the week ending June 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 264,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 262,000 to 264,000. The 4-week moving average was 255,750, an increase of 8,500 from the previous week's revised average. This is the highest level for this average since November 13, 2021 when it was 260,000. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 246,750 to 247,250.

Employer:
Weston Mountain Onions LLC
2926 Kingsgate Way
Richland, WA 99354

MONTGOMERY, AL ‒ Had Piedmont Airlines made sure that a ground crew followed required safety procedures, a 34-year-old customer service agent might have avoided suffering fatal injuries after being pulled into the spinning turbines of a jet engine in December 2022 at Montgomery Regional Airport.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today welcomed the adoption of an apprenticeship recommendation by the International Labor Organization, an action announced at the 2023 International Labor Conference in Geneva on June 16, 2023.

Who:               U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration

St. Louis Area Office and Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council Apprentice and Training Program-St. Louis Campus

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

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor announced that the Division of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation will host a series of outreach events in Arizona and New Mexico for current and former nuclear weapons workers, including uranium miners, millers and ore transporters from covered facilities, and their families from June 27 to 29, 2023.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor announced that its Division of Coal Mine Workers’ Compensation will host a series of outreach events on available benefits for current and former coal miners and their survivors in Arizona and New Mexico from June 27 to 29, 2023.

Held in the Four Corners region, the events will help serve members of the Navajo Nation eligible for federal benefits under the Black Lung Benefits Act.

ORLANDO, FL – The federal Family and Medical Leave Act protects workers from being forced by their employers to choose between their health or their job, so when a regional railroad fired an engineer who sought protected leave, the U.S. Department of Labor investigated.

DALLAS – Soon after U.S. Department of Labor workplace safety inspectors arrived at a Family Dollar store in southeast Van Zandt County in December 2022, they found the store’s operator allowing merchandise to block storeroom exits and walkways, stacking boxes at unsafe heights and failing to ensure quick access to fire extinguishers.

ORRVILLE, OH – When federal investigators responded to a report that a mold machine operator at an Ohio foundry suffered a right thumb amputation in February 2023, they learned the company took no corrective action despite knowing that an employee using the same machine avoided similar injury eight months earlier.

GREEN BAY, WI ‒ Federal safety inspectors responded to a Wisconsin employer’s report of an amputation found workers at a Green Bay beef processing plant exposed to multiple hazards, including inadequate guards to protect employees from machines in operation.

Who:  U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration

           The Migrants & Minorities Alliance Inc.

What:  Safety and health alliance

Date of action:  June 13, 2023

Type of action:  Fair Labor Standards Act consent order and permanent injunction

Names of defendants:   811 Autoworks LLC, operating as AOK Walker Luxury Autoworks 

CHICAGO ‒ A 29-year-old worker suffered the amputation of a fingertip while reassembling a pump at a Hostess Brands LLC facility in Chicago, an injury the employer could have prevented by ensuring to shut down and lockout the equipment to prevent it from unexpectedly starting during maintenance, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found.

WASHINGTON – The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s Interagency Labor Committee for Monitoring and Enforcement today requested the government of Mexico review an allegation that the rights of workers are being denied at the San Martín mine in Zacatecas.