ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Federal investigators have found that two St. Petersburg restaurants withheld tips earned by bartenders and servers to pay for customers who skipped out on their bills, illegally charged employees for uniforms and denied some workers required minimum wage and full overtime pay.

In the week ending March 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 211,000, an increase of 21,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 190,000. The 4-week moving average was 197,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 193,000.

Who:             U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration

                      Operating Engineers, Local 150’s Apprenticeship and Skill Improvement Program

CUSSETA, AL – The independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has affirmed citations issued by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to a global auto parts supplier after the 2016 death of a 20-year-old machine operator at an Alabama manufacturing facility.  

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced an award of more than $1.5 million to support employment and training services for transitioning military service members in and around the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss installation in Texas. 

CINCINNATI – Alerted by the concerns of the West Chester Township Fire Department in Ohio, workplace safety inspectors with the U.S. Department of Labor discovered exit routes, doors and fire extinguishers blocked at a Dollar General store on Princeton Glendale Road in Cincinnati, the same kinds of dangers that have contributed to more than $15 million in proposed federal penalties for the discount retail chain since 2017.

GLENDALE, AZ – The U.S. Department of Labor is currently distributing more than $700,000 in back wages and damages to 470 employees, recovered from a Glendale plastering company following an investigation and lawsuit related to the employer’s pay practices.

CLEVELAND – A 51-year-old painting contractor at a residential apartment complex in Cleveland stepped onto a third-floor balcony and it tilted suddenly, causing him to fall 21 feet onto the concrete below. As he lay injured, the balcony slid off its wall mount and landed on top of the painter. He died from his injuries.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the appointment of five members and leadership for the 2023 Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans, also known as the ERISA Advisory Council.

The 15-member council provides advice on policies and regulations affecting employee benefit plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

ALBANY, NY – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $166,832 for 53 employees of a Little Falls roofing contractor to resolve overtime and recordkeeping violations found by investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division.

ATLANTA – Professionals from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration are participating in the 2023 Atlanta Construction Ready Career Expo – geared toward students  from Georgia’s middle, high and tech schools – to highlight the importance of on-the-job safety to the industry’s next generation of workers.

WASHINGTON – The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s Interagency Labor Committee for Monitoring and Enforcement today requested a review by the government of Mexico after receiving an allegation that workers’ rights are being denied at the Unique Fabricating facility in Querétaro, Mexico.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh joined leaders from North America’s Building Trades Unions, the National Urban League and graduates of pre-apprenticeship programs in construction and construction-related industries to discuss how Registered Apprenticeship programs can train the future workforce to help fill jobs in critical sectors.

PLOVER, WI ‒ At a Plover, Wisconsin, Del Monte Foods cannery, a 20-year-old seasonal worker suffered a partial amputation of their finger after attempting to unjam an unguarded palletizer machine, a federal workplace safety investigation found.

BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment and order prohibiting a Somerville, Massachusetts, restaurant and its owner from retaliating against employees who cooperate in the department’s efforts to enforce the Fair Labor Standards Act. Fakhouri Inc. – operating as Sound Bites Café – and Yasser Mirza must also pay $15,000 in punitive damages to the affected current and former employees in connection with the department’s retaliation claim.

WESTBURY, NY – Federal workplace safety inspectors have cited a thermometer manufacturer for overexposing their employees to mercury at its West Babylon facility.

LAFAYETTE, GA – A 21-year-old line operator at a LaFayette, Georgia, insulation manufacturer suffered severe head trauma after being caught in a machine’s roller. A U.S. Department of Labor investigation determined that the employer willfully ignored federal workplace safety standards.

LOUISVILLE, KY – A federal court in Kentucky has sentenced the co-founder of several phony medical clinics in Louisville and Atlanta, who pleaded guilty to one felony count, after the U.S. Department of Labor found the operators collected $258,000 from 15 self-funded healthcare benefit programs for services they never provided.

NEW YORK – A federal court has ordered a Brewster home care provider to stop retaliating against employees in an effort to obstruct a U.S. Department of Labor investigation into the employers’ pay practices.

Participants:      U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational

                                  Safety and Health Administration

                                  American Society of Safety Professionals, East Texas Chapter