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San Francisco, California - The U.S. Department of Labor will hold a free workshop here August 1 to help employers and health and pension plan fiduciaries better comply with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the federal law governing private employer pension and health benefit plans. The workshop will be at the Arizona Small Business Association Conference Center, 4811 E. Grant Road, Suite 261 (second floor).

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San Francisco, California - The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has reached an agreement with three executives of now-defunct Irvine, California-based Esynch Corporation providing for them to pay more than $23,500 owed to11 former employees and a civil monetary penalty to the federal government of more than $4,700. The agreement resolves a lawsuit alleging the company failed to forward employee contributions to its 401(k) retirement savings plan.

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Atlanta, Georgia - The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment and order requiring Elk Valley Professional Affiliates, Inc. (EVPA) of Fayetteville, Tennessee, to restore $295,455 to the company’s retirement plan and to pay $29,545 in civil monetary penalties to the federal government for violating federal employee benefits law.

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Charleston, West Virginia - A free compliance assistance seminar focusing on laws that cover health benefits will take place July 19-20 at the Marriott Charleston Town Center. The seminar is sponsored by the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the U.S. Labor Department and by the West Virginia Insurance Commission.

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San Francisco, California - The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a suit against the former president and CEO of a Bay Area technology firm to clear the way to returning $149,500 in 401(k) assets to participants in the firm’s retirement plan.

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - The U.S. Department of Labor has filed an adversary complaint in federal bankruptcy court against the owner of now defunct G&M Land Development Inc., Wescosville, Pennsylvania, to prevent her from discharging $118,736 owed to participants of the company’s pension plan. G&M Land Development Inc. was a mobile home business that ceased operations in 1999.

WASHINGTON — Sterling Jewelers Inc., of Akron, Ohio, has agreed to pay $1,291,077 in back wages to resolve violations of the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) overtime requirements, the Labor Department announced today. Sterling agreed to pay the back wages to 16,820 current and former employees of its retail stores operating at 1,200 locations in 41 states. The company does business under 14 retail names around the country.

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Chicago, Illinois - The U.S. Department of Labor has sued former corporate officers of Monroe Cheese Corp., Monroe, Wisconsin, for failing to forward employee contributions to the company’s pension and health plans and retaining the contributions co-mingled with the general operating assets of the company.

BILOXI, Miss. — The U.S. Labor Department announced today that it has obtained agreements from three companies to pay a total of $362,673 in back wages for 680 employees in the hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast region. The companies are involved in the clean-up and reconstruction of casinos along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and have agreed to pay the back wages for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), following investigations by the department's Wage and Hour Division.

NEW ORLEANS — Over the course of the summer, the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division will be available on two days each week at the Good News Camp to provide compliance information to workers and to answer wage and hour-related questions. Bilingual investigators will be available to assist Spanish-speaking individuals.

Goal is to Support What Works Well, Leads to Success

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) is making available up to $5 million to fund pilot projects aimed at increasing self-employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

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Detroit, Michigan - The U.S. Department of Labor has sued former president of now-defunct Employee Resource Management Inc., Auburn Hills, Michigan, for failing to administer and terminate the company’s 401(k) plan so that assets could be distributed to plan participants.

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Boston, Massachusetts - The former president of the defunct Fine Line Drywall, Inc. of Keene, New Hampshire, has been indicted on two counts of theft by misapplication of property in the State of New Hampshire Superior Court. The defendant, Mark R. Blanchard, was arraigned June 1, 2006 in Superior Court in Keene.

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St. Joseph, Michigan - The Labor Department has sued Edward L. Krieger, president of the now defunct National Sales Inc., St. Joseph, Michigan, for using a portion of the company’s 401(k) plan assets for purposes other than to pay plan expenses. In a separate complaint, the department sued Krieger in bankruptcy court to ensure that any debts owed to the plan are not discharged.

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Portland, Oregon - The U.S. Department of Labor has sued William Patterson and C. Dixon Rauch, former owners and officers of defunct Rundel Products Inc., Portland, Oregon, in federal district court in Portland to recover over $15,000 in retirement plan losses resulting from violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) today launched a new Web-based back wage employee locator to provide easy and secure access for employees to find and collect back wages due to them.

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San Francisco - The U. S. Department of Labor (DOL) has obtained a settlement agreement requiring the trustees of the Western Spray Painting Inc. employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), located in Stockton, Calif., to pay approximately $1.2 million in restitution to the plan and $236,667 in civil monetary penalties to the federal government.

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San Francisco, California - Now-defunct GKO & Associates, a South San Francisco-based engineering consulting firm, and its former president must repay more than $142,578 to the company’s 401(k) plan under a default judgment obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The judgment resolves a lawsuit against the company and its former president James Winzler for misuse of employee contributions to pay corporate expenses.

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Atlanta - The U.S. Department of Labor has sued to restore more than $20,000 in assets to the 401(k) plan of former R&D Environmental Consultants, Atlanta.

"Trustees of a 401(k) plan have a responsibility to ensure that the assets of the plan are used solely to benefit participants," said Howard Marsh, director of the department's Atlanta regional office of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA).

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Atlanta - The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit seeking the removal of former K & M Plumbing Contractors, Naples, Fla., as fiduciary of its abandoned 401(k) plan. The suit also asks the court to appoint an independent fiduciary to manage the plan.