Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Washington – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced publication of two proposed rules under the Pension Protection Act (PPA) to make investment advice more accessible for millions of Americans in 401(k) type plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). The proposed regulation and class exemption are to be published in the August 22, 2008 Federal Register.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Washington – The Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans (also known as the ERISA Advisory Council) and its three working groups will meet September 9-11 at the U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Room S-3215 A-B in Washington, D.C.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

San Francisco – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued a Long Beach pediatrician and his professional corporation for allegedly misusing retirement plan assets and refusing to distribute account balances to terminated participants.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Atlanta – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued Timothy Steinkamp, a corporate officer of defunct Broward Removal Services and Broward Trade Services Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) when he failed to remit employee contributions owed to the company’s 401(k) plan.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Cincinnati – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a default judgment requiring Cincinnati-based Queen City Restaurant Group and its 401(k) trustee, Vincent Bryant, to pay $46,718 to the company’s 401(k) savings plans as restitution for failing to remit employee contributions and loan repayments owed to the plans.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Huntington, New York – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a default judgment requiring Huntington, New York-based Mutual Association Administrators (MAA) to restore nearly $1.8 million to the Mutual Employees Benefit Trust (MEBT) and permanently barring the firm from providing service to plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in the future. The judgment resolves a lawsuit filed by the department.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

San Francisco – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued the former president and chief executive officer of a defunct Phoenix company for allegedly misusing assets of the CTC Engineering money purchase plan of Scottsdale, Arizona, to pay personal and corporate expenses.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

New York – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York to obtain appointment of an independent fiduciary to oversee the abandoned 401(k) plan of defunct Freedom Security Systems Inc. of New Hyde Park, New York.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

New York – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a federal court order appointing an independent fiduciary to manage the abandoned 401(k) plan of the former Storch Sheinbrot & Singer Physicians PC of Brooklyn, New York.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Hartford, Connecticut – Trustees of the James T. Farrell III Money Purchase Pension Plan in Hartford misused more than $960,000 in plan assets to pay their personal expenses and operating expenses of Farrell Associates in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), according to a lawsuit filed by the U. S. Department of Labor.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Austin, Texas – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued fiduciaries of the 401(k) plan for employees of the Brown Schools Inc., based in Austin, for failure to forward employee contributions to the company’s 401(k) plan and misusing those assets to pay the operating expenses of the school.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

San Juan, Puerto Rico – The union Sindicato de los Empleados de Equipo Pesado, Construcción y Ramas Anexas de Puerto Rico Inc. has agreed to pay $70,986.46 in restitution to the Plan de Bienestar de los Empleados de Equipo Pesado Construcción Ramas Anexas de Puerto Rico Inc. under a consent judgment obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Cincinnati – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a default judgment against Woodford Memorial Hospital Inc. of Versailles, Kentucky, removing the hospital as fiduciary of its retirement and thrift plan, and appointing an independent fiduciary to oversee the collection, management and liquidation of assets for the benefit of the plan’s participants.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

WASHINGTON — Elaine L. Chao, U.S. secretary of labor, and Christopher Cox, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), today agreed to make permanent their agencies' longstanding relationship of sharing information on retirement and investments to protect the $5.8 trillion in retirement assets of American workers, retirees and their families held in employee benefit plans by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) today unveiled two initiatives aimed at promoting the hiring of veterans and protecting the rights of applicants with disabilities: The Good Faith Initiative for Veterans Employment (G-FIVE) and Ensuring the Accessibility of Online Application Systems.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

San Francisco – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment in which Phoenix-based Hyacinth Corp. and its president agreed to restore $125,000 owed to participants of the corporation’s money purchase plan.

Agency also marks 70th anniversary of Fair Labor Standards Act

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor reminds employers and employees that the federal minimum wage will increase to $6.55 on Thursday, July 24. With this change, employees who are covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will be entitled to pay at no less than $6.55 per hour.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao today announced that "America's People, America's Talent... America's Strength!" will be the official 2008 theme for National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which is observed in October nationwide. The 2008 theme captures the accomplishments highlighted in the 2007 progress report on President Bush's New Freedom Initiative for people with disabilities.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

San Francisco – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued North Valley Precision Products of Reno, Nevada, for misusing 401(k) plan assets that resulted in 12 former employees being unable to access their retirement plan accounts.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Seattle – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) will hold free, half-day workshops July 29 in Seattle to help employers, the employee benefit community and others better comply with the federal pension law.

The workshops will be held at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. PDT in the Henry Jackson Federal Building, 915 Second Avenue in the Evergreen Room.