WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor encourages the nation’s employers to commit to workplace safety and health and join its Occupational Safety and Health Administration in observing Safe + Sound Week, Aug. 9-15, 2021.

A nationwide event that recognizes the successes of workplace safety and health programs, Safe + Sound Week also offers information and ideas on how to keep America’s workers safe.

In the week ending July 31, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 385,000, a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 1,000 from 400,000 to 399,000. The 4-week moving average was 394,000, a decrease of 250 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 250 from 394,500 to 394,250.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced an alliance with the American Association for Access, Equity and Diversity to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in the national organization’s workplace equity efforts.

TAVARES, FL – In the early afternoon of March 2, 2021, a 44-year-old electrical technician at an Orlando work site climbed down into a trench to splice electrical wires to power streetlights. Not long after, the worker made contact with live wires and suffered fatal electrocution, a death the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators deemed avoidable had the employer taken required safety measures.  

PHILADELPHIA – A North Carolina farm labor contractor that hired temporary workers to pick and pack melons in southern Delaware violated federal law when it employed them in jobs not listed in its application to hire foreign guest workers, failed to provide required kitchen facilities or meals, paid insufficient wages and housed workers in overcrowded living quarters, the U.S.

LAKEWOOD, NJ – A Central New Jersey medical facility and temporary staffing agency failed to ensure the safety and health of nurses giving flu shots and testing potentially infectious patients for the coronavirus earlier this year, a U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation has found.

MOUNT DORA, FL – Diners at Fiesta Grande Mexican Grill locations in Mount Dora and Orange City never knew that the restaurants’ operator was sharing tips intended for servers with cooks in violation of federal laws regulating the use of money in tip pools.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM –The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $284,219 in back wages for 163 employees of Pappas Restaurants Inc. after an investigation found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime requirements.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Employers may request that workers arrive before their shifts begin for briefings but workers must be paid for that time, a lesson that a New Mexico community college learned after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation.

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh today issued a statement on Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s announcement that Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc. has today pleaded to and been sentenced for theft relating to violations of the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act and the federal Davis-Bacon Act.

CHICAGO ‒ An Ohio worker tasked with cleaning a chemical tanker trailer collapsed upon entering the tank. Answering the employee’s call for help, a nearby truck driver entered the tank. Both workers succumbed to fatal toxic fumes.

DALLAS ‒ Un trabajador que limpiaba el interior de un remolque tanque en Pasadena en diciembre de 2019 fue víctima de vapores peligrosos, al igual que el compañero que intentó rescatarlo. Meses más tarde, en agosto de 2020, dos limpiadores que entraron en una cisterna de gas natural de un vagón de ferrocarril en Hugo, Oklahoma, también fueron víctimas de los vapores.

DALLAS ‒ A worker cleaning the inside of a tank trailer in Pasadena in December 2019 fell victim to hazardous vapors, as did a co-worker who attempted rescue. Months later, in August 2020, two cleaning workers entered a natural gas tanker on a railcar in Hugo, Oklahoma and fell victim to its vapors. Four lives were lost in the tank cleaning industry in less than a year – and part of a troubling trend of preventable workplace deaths in the region.

HIGH POINT, NC – The U.S. Department of Labor and Fastenal Co. have agreed to resolve alleged systemic gender-based hiring discrimination that affected 483 female job applicants at its High Point facility from Dec. 7, 2016 through July 31, 2018.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award up to $20 million in grant funding to elevate workers’ rights and improve working conditions in the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

MEDINA, OH – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a Millersburg contractor – with a history of not cooperating with federal safety inspectors – for exposing workers to deadly fall hazards for the sixth time in three years– while fall protection equipment remained unused at a Medina residential work site.

GREENVILLE, GA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has again cited a Greenville recycling company, where a 44-year-old welder employed by a contractor in the facility suffered fatal injuries in 2019 amid safety violations.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a final rule to rescind an earlier rule, “Joint Employer Status under the Fair Labor Standards Act,” that took effect in March 2020.

In the week ending July 24, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 400,000, a decrease of 24,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 5,000 from 419,000 to 424,000. The 4-week moving average was 394,500, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 1,250 from 385,250 to 386,500.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of $1,096,975 in funding to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development for job creation and workforce training in 25 counties affected significantly by widespread opioid use, addiction and overdose.