Date of Action: July 16, 2015

Type of Action: Consent judgment and order with Mercury Signs & Display LTD and its owners Travis Hoffart and Ted Hoffart, Jr., in an effort to recover about $30,000 in employee retirement contributions.

Name of Defendant: Mercury Signs & Display LTD and its owners Travis Hoffart and Ted Hoffart, Jr.

Employer's name: The investigation was conducted at Franklin Fibre-Lamitex Corp., doing business as Franklin Fibre. The precision parts manufacturer is located at 903 East 13th Street in Wilmington, Delaware.

Employer name: Durand-Wayland Inc.

Inspection site: 101 Durand Road, LaGrange, Georgia 30241

Date citations issued: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations to the employer on July 21, 2015. The inspection was initiated on Jan. 29, 2015, after the agency received a complaint.

Date of Action: July 16, 2015

Type of Action: Consent judgment and order with Mercury Signs & Display LTD and its owners Travis Hoffart and Ted Hoffart, Jr., in an effort to recover about $30,000 in employee retirement contributions.

Name of Defendant: Mercury Signs & Display LTD and its owners Travis Hoffart and Ted Hoffart, Jr.

HOUSTON — Despite his request for a safety harness, a temporary worker without fall protection on a roof later fell 12 feet through the roof. His fall resulted in his hospitalization with fractured arms and severe contusions.

The employer, Cotton Commercial USA Inc. in Katy, Texas, waited three days to report the injury, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found. Federal law requires employers to report such incidents within 24 hours.

HOUSTON — One minute he was working in the 8-foot trench below ground. The next, he was being buried in it. His co-workers came to his rescue, digging him out with their bare hands. Moments after they pulled the injured man to safety, the unprotected trench collapsed again. His injuries were serious and led to his hospitalization.

The man's Houston-area employer, Hassell Construction Co. Inc. knew the Richmond, Texas excavation site was dangerous, but failed to protect its workers.

ARLINGTON, Va. — In the first six months of 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration recorded the deaths of 18 miners in mining industry accidents in its national mid-year summary released today. The toll represents a decrease of five metal and nonmetal deaths from the same period in 2014.

ARCADIA, Wis. — A 56-year-old employee of furniture manufacturer Ashley Furniture Industries Inc. had his right ring finger amputated because the company has continued to ignore safety requirements to protect workers from moving machine parts. The company also failed to report the injury to the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as required.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs is seeking nominations for membership on the newly created Advisory Board on Toxic Substances and Worker Health for Part E of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. The act provides compensation and medical benefits to nuclear weapons workers diagnosed with medical conditions caused by their exposure to toxic substances at covered nuclear facilities.

WARSAW, Ind. — A federal court in Indiana has entered an Agreed Order and Judgment requiring PBI Bank Inc. to pay $1,052,613 to the Miller's Health Systems Inc., Employee Stock Ownership Plan to restore alleged losses. The judgment resolves a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor against PBI alleging it violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act when it authorized the purchase of company stock by the ESOP for more than fair market value.

Employer name: Metallurgical Processing Inc.

Investigation site: 50 — 58 Arthur St., New Britain, Conn. 06053

Investigation findings: The Hartford Area Office of the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration began inspections on Jan. 15, 2015, in response to employee complaints. The inspections found employees of the company, which performs heat treatment on metal parts, were exposed to a variety of fire, explosion, chemical and mechanical hazards.

WASHINGTON — Ricardo stands on his tiptoes, straining to reach into a tangle of branches to retrieve a cluster of coffee berries. He makes his way along the row of trees, each laden with hundreds of the tiny fruit, dropping them carefully in his basket. He repeats this process for hours. His unprotected hands and arms are covered with scratches, his bare feet and legs bitten by bugs, his skin scorched by the hot sun. At 10 years old, this is the world he knows; he has never seen the inside of a classroom.

WASHINGTON — Now well into its fourth year, one of the worst droughts in California in more than a century continues to cause economic insecurity for many families in the region, particularly in the agriculture sector. A recent University of California Davis study estimates 18,000 people lost jobs because of drought.

FARGO, N.D. — A Fargo-based hotel owner who cheated his workers out of their wages must pay more than $180,000 to approximately 200 current and former workers at 15 North Dakota, Montana and Minnesota hotels.

The U.S. District Court of North Dakota has entered a consent judgment ordering Bharat I. Patel to pay back wages and liquidated damages to resolve a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Attorney for the District of North Dakota.

Employer name: Gate Precast Co. and Trueblue Inc., doing business as Labor Ready

Site: Shenandoah, Texas

Date citations issued: The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the employers on July 16, for exposing workers to fall hazards at a construction site.

Participants: The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration renewed a two-year alliance July 16, with the South Louisiana Service, Transmission, Exploration and Production Safety Network.

When and Where: July 16 at Safety Management Systems, Lafayette, LA.

MIDDLEFIELD, Ohio — A teenage worker's life was altered forever when his employer allowed him to operate machinery illegally and the 14-year-old lost his hand in the process.

Shady Knob Pallet Co. of Middlefield received citations from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration on July 7. The citations followed an inspection that found the young man suffered the injury when he touched the operating parts of a wood planer while manufacturing pallets on March 31.

DALLAS — A local steel fabricator continues to put its workers in harm's way, despite its awareness of hazards at its Farmers Branch facility, and a recent federal inspection that found more than a dozen safety violations.

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. — A 25-ton power press crushed a temporary worker's right ring finger when the machine she operated cycled through while her hand was inside. The incident, at a steel parts manufacturing plant in Elk Grove Village, occurred when light curtains that act as machine guards failed to work properly. The woman suffered the injury after just 10 days at Topy Precision Manufacturing Inc.

Employer name: Transformers Construction Services Inc. and Buildtronix LLC, owned by Leanna Richardson.

Inspection sites: 25 Molasses Court, St. Johns, Florida 32259 and 65 Morning Star Way, Ponte Vedra, Florida 32081

Date citations issued: The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued the employer citations on June 26.