WASHINGTON — Losing a job is a difficult experience — fraught with uncertainty, fear and stress. Finding a new job is time-consuming and lost income creates a financial burden. For employers, layoffs can also be costly. Trimming staff when business slows means if new employees are needed when business picks back up, the employer faces the cost of training and lower productivity as workers acclimate.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Sierra Construction Co. Inc. has agreed to pay $87,239 in back wages to 39 employees who worked on The Prescott apartment building, a federally financed construction project in Portland. U.S. Department of Labor investigators found that Sierra and two of its subcontractors failed to pay the prevailing wages required by the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts.

Employer name: Plastic Molding Technology Inc.

Site: El Paso, Texas

Date initiated: The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration initiated the November 2014 inspection under the National Emphasis Program on Amputations. The NEP is designed to identify and reduce workplace hazards that cause or are likely to cause amputations.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a proposal to clarify federal contractors' requirements to prohibit sex discrimination. The recommended changes would revise the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs' guidelines to align with laws, court decisions and societal changes since they were originally issued in 1970.

Date of Action: Jan. 23, 2015

Name(s) of Defendants: TecSol Inc.

BOISE, Idaho — Ernesto Paramo never knew his shift on August 4 would be his last, leaving his family and friends to grieve his untimely death. The 30-year-old welder clocked in as he had many times before and then went to work at Superior Steel Products Inc. Paramo was in an unsecured basket raised improperly on a forklift about nine feet off the floor when the basket fell off a forklift onto the concrete floor below. Sadly, Paramo is not alone; in the past year, nearly one-in-four Idaho workplace fatalities were a result of improper forklift use.

TOLEDO, Ohio — Twice in two years, employees at P & W Painting Contractors were found in danger of falling as they worked on top of machines and elevated platforms more than 14 feet off the ground. After a complaint was filed, U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors identified one repeated and eight serious safety violations, including lack of fall protection and forklift hazards at the company's Toledo facility. OSHA has proposed penalties of $40,040.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Tangled extension cords, overloaded power outlets in wet locations, blocked exits, faulty forklifts, machines without safety guards and damaged floors — all in a hazardous day at work for employees at Xpedited Services LLC's warehouse in Jersey City, an inspection by U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators found.

PELL CITY, Ala. — Imagine being on the job and suddenly you are horrifically injured. Adding to your pain, you learn later company management knew of the hazards that injured you and did nothing to stop this from happening. This situation became all-too-real for a maintenance worker at WKW Erbsloeh North America Inc.'s Alabama facility. The worker was standing above the tanks, while helping with tank maintenance, when he slipped, fell backwards, and submerged himself into a tank filled with highly corrosive phosphoric and sulfuric acid.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Not long after a miner who maintained a dust collector machine at a cement facility in San Bernardino County, California, contacted the Mine Safety and Health Administration about safety hazards, he was suspended and then terminated in April 2014. MSHA filed a motion for temporary reinstatement of the miner, and the mine operator, Riverside Cement Co., agreed to temporary economic reinstatement. Ultimately, the company agreed to fully reinstate the miner and pay back wages in the context of a settlement.

Date of Action: Jan. 26, 2015

Type of Action: Consent Judgment

Name(s) of Defendant(s): Gregory Ridge, Ridge and Long Limited Co., and Ridge and Long Limited Company 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan and Trust

Allegations: Based on an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, on July 29, 2014, the Secretary of Labor filed a complaint alleging the following:

Date of Action: Jan. 26, 2015

Type of Action: Lawsuit for violating anti-retaliation provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act

Name(s) of Defendant: No-Dig Tec, LLC and John Newell, President

LAS VEGAS — Like neon lights, slot machines and high-stakes gamblers, chauffeured luxury transportation is a vital feature of the fabled Las Vegas experience. For nearly 500 drivers of one Vegas limousine company, improper payroll deductions and tip credits left many chauffeurs with earnings below the minimum wage, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division found.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Workers at Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC were exposed to dangerous chemicals, such as formaldehyde and other potential health and safety hazards, because the company failed to implement proper chemical management procedures at its Columbus plant. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration produced 11 serious violations with penalties totaling $60,500.

MOSS POINT, Miss. — Two temporary workers hired to cut and weld pipes at the Omega Protein plant in Moss Point on July 28, 2014, had no idea and had no training to know that the storage tank beneath them contained explosive methane and hydrogen sulfide gases. One of the two men found out later as he lay in a hospital with a fractured skull, internal injuries and broken bones. The second, a 25-year-old man named Jerry Taylor, died when the tank exploded.

Employer name: Atlas Steel Coatings Inc.

Inspection site: 129 Philema Road, Albany, Georgia 31702

Date investigation initiated: OSHA initiated the investigation July 22, 2014, after receiving a complaint.

Date of Action: January 23, 2015

Type of Action: Complaint

Names of Defendants: Northampton Motor Classics LLC and Andrew Feuerstein

State: Commonwealth of Kentucky

Type of Award: National Emergency Grant

Employers Experiencing Layoffs: Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (McCracken County), GE Aviation (Madisonville)

Total Award Amount Approved: $4,598,681

Initial Award Released: $2,170,658

Funding Awarded to: West Kentucky Workforce Investment Board

Number of Workers to Be Served: About 875

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez issued the following statement on the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics report released today on union membership in 2014:

"Today's report confirms what we've always known: that belonging to a union makes a powerful difference in people's lives, providing greater economic security and helping them punch their ticket to the middle class.