In the week ending February 27, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 745,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 6,000 from 730,000 to 736,000. The 4-week moving average was 790,750, a decrease of 16,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 250 from 807,750 to 807,500.

BOISE, ID – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is asking businesses in Idaho’s building and heavy construction industries to complete a survey to help the agency establish prevailing wage rates, as required under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts. Not limited to federally funded construction projects, the survey includes active building and heavy construction projects in all metropolitan counties in Idaho between Jan.

LIMA, OH – While cleaning an auger used to rice potatoes, a 39-year-old production worker found her left arm caught in a running auger. The worker suffered multiple lacerations and the partial amputation of her arm. Co-workers had to cut the auger apart to free her arm.  

PITTSBURGH – A U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh has issued a consent order requiring the payment of more than $1.6 million in back wages and damages to 546 home health aides.

CHICAGO – Kitchen staff worked countless hours making authentic dishes like Banh Mi and Pho for a fixed salary while co-workers serving customers seeking Vietnamese cuisine at a popular Chicago restaurant often worked for tips only.

BIRMINGHAM, AL – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has signed a strategic partnership with Brasfield & Gorrie, in which the agency and construction management firm will promote worker safety and health at the Grandview Physicians Place II project in Birmingham. The University of Alabama’s Safe State program will also support the effort.

BALTIMORE, MD – As many restaurant servers’ base wage is well below $7.25 per hour, they depend on customers’ appreciation of their service to make ends meet. When an employer keeps a portion of the tips they earned or fails to pay them for all the hours they worked, paying their own bills becomes a very tall order.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Two truck drivers for an Oklahoma City roofing and building products company reported to a manager that the tires on a company truck were unsafe. Concerned about their own safety and that of others on the road, the two drivers refused to operate vehicles with unsafe tires. They were terminated in August 2020.

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – While a North Charleston catering facility relied on the hard work of its hourly workers to make their guests’ weddings and special events memorable, a recent U.S. Department of Labor investigation found 18 workers had less to celebrate when their employer failed to pay them $22,970 in overtime they had earned.

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles World Airports – owner and operator of Los Angeles International and Van Nuys airports – has made sweeping changes to its employee medical leave request system to address failures that led to long delays, invalid disciplinary personnel actions and violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act found in a U.S. Department of Labor investigation.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced today that it has scheduled the eighth annual National Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction for May 3-7, 2021. OSHA encourages construction employers and other stakeholders to join the event to promote awareness and training to address one of the industry’s most serious dangers.

CANTON, OH – Three stories above ground, five workers moved unsteadily atop a Canton apartment building, all of them at risk of a serious or fatal fall because, once again, their employer failed to ensure they used required safety equipment to protect them from falling. Ivan Lowky – their employer – was also working on the roof without necessary fall protection despite having the equipment available.

WEST FARMINGTON, OH – A 14-year-old boy working on the roof of a Berea townhome without required fall protection suffered critical injuries when he fell 20-feet to the ground. Immediately following this serious incident, the company’s owner and three other workers put on personal fall arrest equipment to complete the roofing work in an apparent attempt to conceal the fact that fall protection was not in use at the time of the injury.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced additional funding of $1,767,172 to the Government of Guam’s Department of Administration to respond to the workforce needs resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

WASHINGTON, DC – A young Ethiopian girl dreamt of finishing school to become a health worker in her village. She was 13 when her father died, forcing her to leave school and enter the fields to pick coffee to help her family. During long days of work, she harvests, washes and sorts coffee cherries – exposed to sharp objects, pesticides and other hazardous chemicals – with her health and her future at risk.

WASHINGTON – For many of America’s workers, choosing between unsafe employment and refusing work to avoid the risk of coronavirus infection has serious consequences. Too often, those who do not return to work or accept a job offer over concerns about workplace exposure lose their state unemployment benefits.

PENSACOLA, FL – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has signed a strategic partnership with Brasfield & Gorrie to promote worker safety and health at the Baptist Health Care Corp.’s Brent Lane Hospital project in Pensacola. The University of South Florida On-Site Safety and Health Consultation Program will also support this effort.

SIOUX FALLS, SD – To combat the dangers workers face in trenching operations, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the South Dakota State University Engineering Extension Program and the South Dakota One Call Notification Board signed an alliance on Feb. 19, 2021, to train workers on excavation hazards.

In the week ending February 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 730,000, a decrease of 111,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 20,000 from 861,000 to 841,000. The 4-week moving average was 807,750, a decrease of 20,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 5,000 from 833,250 to 828,250.

PHOENIX, AZ – The U.S. Department of Labor wants to hear from current and former employees of a Tempe stucco and plastering contractor as part of long-running investigation and lawsuit over continuous and egregious alleged overtime and recordkeeping violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.