SEATTLE – The U.S. Department of Labor has debarred an East Wenatchee orchard operator for three years from participation in a federal program that allows employment of temporary agricultural workers from outside the U.S. after investigators determined that the employer provided unsafe and unhealthy housing, failed to provide work promised in workers’ contracts, and subjected workers to verbal abuse and threats.

SAN JOSE, CA – Denying their workers overtime pay when required has had costly consequences for the operators of six northern California pizza franchise locations from whom the U.S. Department of Labor has recovered a total of $608,272 in back wages and liquidated damages for 33 workers.

Employer:                                          LI&YU Restaurant LLC, operating as 

APPLETON, WI – Despite the potentially deadly consequences of its actions, an Appleton contractor allowed three roofers to work at heights up to 18 feet without anchoring their fall protection, making it useless in preventing serious or fatal injuries.

In the week ending July 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 256,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 10,000 from 251,000 to 261,000. The 4-week moving average was 249,250, an increase of 6,250 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 2,500 from 240,500 to 243,000.

MINNEAPOLIS – An administrative law judge has dismissed a Minnesota company’s notice of contest and affirmed the U.S. Department of Labor finding that the employer violated a federal program that allows foreign, non-agricultural workers with H-2B visas to temporarily work in the U.S.

DAVIE, FL – In 2018, federal workplace safety investigators cited a Pompano Beach roofing contractor who exposed its workers to the construction industry’s most lethal hazard, falls from elevation. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined that the company’s failure to heed that warning claimed the life of a 25-year-old worker in February 2022.

Participant:   Veolia ES Technical Solutions LLC, Charlestown, Massachusetts

Description:   Veolia ES Technical Solutions LLC, which employs about 65 workers in Charlestown, provides hazardous waste management, shipment and disposal as well as environmental services for businesses in the Northeast.

HAVELOCK, NC – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $268,014 in back wages for 63 workers of a Reston, Virginia, technical and engineering contractor who denied them a portion of their wages and benefits while they worked on a Department of Defense project in Havelock.

NEWARK, NJ – A U.S.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration today announced a proposed amendment to the Class Prohibited Transaction Exemption 84-14, also known as the Qualified Professional Asset Manager Exemption, to ensure the exemption continues to protect plans, participants and beneficiaries, individual retirement account owners and their interests.

FRANKLIN PARK, NJ – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has recovered $115,801 in back wages and damages for 36 workers after an investigation found their employer denied them overtime pay at two New Jersey car washes.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced an incremental award of $1.3 million to the Cherokee Nation to support continued disaster-relief employment and employment and training services in response to the coronavirus pandemic’s effects on its people.

GULF BREEZE, FL – A federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor at a Gulf Breeze restaurant found several pay practice and child labor violations, including the failure to pay sushi chefs overtime wages due and the employment of 15-year-old workers for more hours per week than the law allows.

ORLANDO, FL – The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed $330,446 in penalties to a Family Dollar store in Orlando after an investigation into a fatal shoplifting incident uncovered willful and repeat safety violations.

ATLANTA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is asking the highway construction industry of Georgia to participate in a survey to help the agency establish prevailing wage rates, as required under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. government today requested the Mexican government review whether the rights of free association and collective bargaining have been denied to workers at the VU Manufacturing parts facility in Piedras Negras, Coahuila. 

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh and Spain’s Second Vice President and Minister of Labor and Social Economy Yolanda Díaz Pérez met in Washington on July 20, 2022, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that reasserts both countries’ commitment to addressing a wide range of concerns affecting workers and underserved populations. 

MAUI – A federal investigation has recovered $290,314 in rightfully earned wages and damages owed to 95 workers after the pay practices of their employer – the operator of five Maui food truck-restaurants – willfully denied them their full wages.

DALLAS – To prevent the dangers of heat illness as summer heat descends on the Southwest’s farmworkers, the U.S. Department of Labor is taking immediate measures to raise awareness of the hazards faced by those working to maintain the nation’s food supply.