Employer name: PVI Industries LLC

Site: Fort Worth, Texas

Date initiated: The Site Specific Targeted inspections, which are planned inspections at high-hazard workplaces where the highest rates of injuries and illnesses occur, began Aug. 28, 2014.

Investigation findings: OSHA cited the employer for 17 serious safety violations that include failure to:

BOSTON — Employees at Central Transport LLC's 170 freight shipping terminals nationwide use forklifts daily to move, handle, load and unload freight and other materials. These vehicles must be maintained according to recognized safety standards, so that workers are not crushed, struck-by or injured by defective forklifts.

Employer name: Mercury Products Corp.

Inspection site: Mercury Products Corp., 1201 S. Mercury Drive, Schaumburg, Illinois

On Aug. 13, 2014, a safety and health inspection was initiated at Mercury Products Corp., by the Chicago North Area Office of the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration after receiving a formal complaint. The company employs about 120 temporary employees in addition to its permanent workforce of about 110.

STOCKTON, Ill. — A 49-year-old man plunged about nine stories to his death while painting a communication tower near Stockton, Illinois, because his employer, Sherwood Tower Service, did not provide an adequate fall protection system while he worked high above the ground. The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated the Aug. 10, 2014 fatality, and cited two willful and one serious safety violation.

Employer name and location: Northstar Contracting Group Inc., 32 Williams Parkway, East Hanover, N.J. 07936. The specialty services contracting company is headquartered in New York City.

Investigation site: Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, 1 Central Avenue, Morris Plains, N.J.

Employer name: Frick Service Inc., Portage, Indiana

Investigation site: 800 Sun Drive, Portage, Indiana

On Aug. 28, 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Indianapolis Area Office initiated an inspection after receiving a formal complaint alleging unsafe working conditions. Frick Services Inc. provides industrial, agricultural and residential storage that is serviceable by water and rail to its clients.

BOSTON — Lahey Clinic Hospital, Inc. will pay $190,000 to resolve allegations of systemic pay discrimination at its medical center in Burlington, Massachusetts. A compliance review by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs found that Lahey Clinic discriminated against 38 female housekeepers by paying the women 70 cents less per hour than their male counterparts.

Date of Action: Feb. 4, 2015

Type of Action: Complaint

Name of Defendant: U.S. Cotton LLC, 15501 Industrial Parkway, Cleveland, Ohio

Allegations: U.S. Cotton LLC, of Cleveland, wrongfully terminated the employment of a pregnant machine operator who requested leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act due to illness related to her pregnancy.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor and other federal agencies will host two town hall meetings on Feb. 25 in Carlsbad, New Mexico, to inform current and former nuclear weapons workers, including those employed at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, about the benefits available to them under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. Survivors of qualified workers may be entitled to benefits also.

UNION, Mo. — Workers were exposed to amputation and other serious hazards while operating presses at Gateway Extrusions' aluminum parts manufacturing facility, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has found. OSHA cited one repeated and eight serious safety and health violations at the Union facility, with proposed penalties of $63,000.

Employer name: Seaboard Foods LLC

Inspection site: Guymon, Oklahoma

ST. LOUIS — Four employees were hospitalized, two of them critically injured, after an explosion at a St. Louis trucking terminal on Aug. 6, 2014. The explosion's cause: a forklift's ignition source and a loose coupling connection to a liquid propane gas tank. An investigation of the incident by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found one willful and 11 serious safety and health violations at Saia Motor Freight Line LLC. As a result, the agency has proposed penalties of $119,000.

Textile manufacturer faces $108,800 in OSHA penalties

AUGUSTA, Maine — Employees at Formed Fiber Technologies LLC's Auburn manufacturing plant use a variety of machines, including robots, to make polyester carpets and thermoformed trunk liners for the automotive industry. An inspection by U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration begun in September 2014, has found these workers at risk of injuries because their employer did not ensure proper safeguards on the machines they operate.

HONOLULU — M.H. Electric has paid $290,588 in back wages to 65 workers after the U.S. Department of Labor determined that the Honolulu-based subcontractor violated federal wage and hour laws at 10 federally funded construction projects awarded in Hawaii between 2012 and 2014 by the Hawaii Air National Guard and the U.S. Departments of the Navy, Army and Veterans Affairs. In resolving the department's allegations, the company also paid an additional $14,507 in back wages and damages for overtime violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

LONDON, Ohio — Employees at Reynolds Nationwide risked potentially lethal suffocation caused by dangerous fumes as the company did not test the atmosphere and properly ventilate the air in food transport tankers before allowing workers to enter. After receiving an employee complaint, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration initiated an investigation on Aug. 6, 2014, at the London tank-cleaning facility.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez issued the following statement about the January 2015 Employment Situation report released today:

"2015 is picking up right where 2014 left off — with strong, steady, sustained job growth that is leading a dynamic recovery.

SEATTLE — More than three-quarters of janitorial service companies investigated nationally by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division in the past two fiscal years failed to pay low-wage workers fairly and legally for the work they do. Of the division's 1,221 janitorial industry investigations, 76 percent resulted in violations and led to the recovery of $7.9 million in unpaid wages for nearly 10,000 workers.

HOUSTON — Combustible dust left uncontrolled or suspended in the air can explode, which was one of many safety hazards discovered after an inspection at the Thomas Moore Feed facility in Navasota, Texas, by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA inspectors found 18 violations and proposed a penalty of $58,100.

Employer name: MP Global Products LLC, Norfolk, Nebraska

Investigation site: 2500 Hadar Road, Norfolk, Nebraska

After receiving a formal complaint from an employee alleging unsafe working conditions, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Omaha Area Office initiated an inspection on Aug. 5, 2014.

Investigation findings: OSHA's investigation found multiple safety and health hazards at the company which manufactures padding from recycled denim products.

HOUSTON — A 31-year-old worker was the second person killed in a year at Madden Bolt Corp. when a cutting-table explosion in August 2014 hurled the employee and a steel plate into the air. The plate then landed on the fallen worker, U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators determined. As a result, OSHA has cited the Houston-based employer for 10 serious violations.

In September 2013, a forklift driver at Madden Bolt died after the machine turned over and pinned him underneath.