EL PASO, TX – A federal workplace safety investigation of an El Paso jewelry metal-plating finisher found the company again exposing workers to serious hazards, including willfully failing to protect people working with dangerous acids and other chemicals from potentially permanent eye injuries. 

Employer:                               ELJ Inc.

Investigation site:                  133 Batting Cage Trail

                                                 Jacksonville, NC 28540

Quién:            Departamento de Trabajo de los Estados Unidos

Qué:                Seminario Agrícola Virtual 2023

Cuándo:         7 de marzo de 2023, de 9 a.m. a 4:30 p.m. CST

Who:               U.S. Department of Labor

What:             2023 Virtual Agricultural Seminar

When:             March 7, 2023, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CST

TAMUNING, GUAM ‒ Federal safety inspectors found Pepsi Guam Bottling jeopardized the safety of their employees by disabling safety devices to allow workers to reach into a bottle-labeling machine as often as 15 times an hour to grab and fix labels and adjust tipping bottles to avoid slowing or stopping production.

ATLANTA – With a nearly $1 million annual increase in back wages recovered in the Southeast for agricultural industry workers in calendar year 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is continuing its multi-year initiative to educate industry employers about compliance, and workers about their legal protections under federal law.

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

                        McCarthy Building Companies Inc.

What:              Strategic partnership

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the rescission of the rule “Implementing Legal Requirements Regarding the Equal Opportunity Clause’s Religious Exemption,” in effect since Jan. 8, 2021. The rescission ensures a return to the department’s prior policy and practice in place during the presidencies of George W.

WASHINGTON – Since 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor has seen a 69 percent increase in children being employed illegally by companies. In the last fiscal year, the department found 835 companies it investigated had employed more than 3,800 children in violation of labor laws. The maximum civil monetary penalty under current law for a child labor violation is $15,138 per child. That’s not high enough to be a deterrent for major profitable companies.

CONCORD, NH – Federal workplace safety inspectors have again cited a Derry contractor for not protecting their employees against potentially lethal falls, this time at worksites in Merrimack and Salem.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced it will publish a final rule to amend how the Adverse Effect Wage Rates for the H-2A program are set to improve the rates’ consistency and accuracy based on the work actually performed by these workers and to better prevent H-2A workers’ employment negatively affecting the wages of U.S. workers in similar positions.

WASHINGTON – A federal panel has affirmed that Walmart Inc. violated federal workplace safety standards at its warehouse in Johnstown, New York, when it failed to prevent stored merchandise from falling onto – and seriously injuring – an employee in 2017.

SAN FRANCISCO – Tras una investigación y litigio en los tribunales, el Departamento de Trabajo de EE.UU. ha logrado un fallo judicial que ordena a un contratista laboral de Salinas pagar más de $460,000 en compensación por daños y multas luego de descubrirse que el contratista retuvo los cheques finales de pago y de gastos de transporte de cientos de trabajadores agrícolas.

WASHINGTON – As part of its year-long commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, the U.S. Department of Labor today hosted an online roundtable discussion and launched a new web page to inform workers about federal regulations for job-protected leave to care for a family member.

WASHINGTON – Federal workplace safety inspectors, once again, found that the world’s largest e-commerce company exposed workers to hazardous conditions at one of its distribution centers.

ALBANY, NY – A U.S. Department of Labor investigation into two commonly owned Callicoon resorts’ pay and child labor practices was no vacation for the employers after investigators uncovered violations of federal regulations.

DALLAS – Soon after federal workplace safety inspectors arrived at a Dollar Tree store in Mount Pleasant, Texas, they found the national discount retailer again shortchanging employee safety – continuing a pattern of disregard dating back to 2017 – by allowing storeroom merchandise to block exits and walkways and stacking boxes high enough to fall on workers.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor, the IRS and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation today released Federal Register notices that announce changes to the 2023 Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan and Form 5500-SF Short Form. These changes are estimated to reduce overall filing costs for employee benefit plans by $95 million annually.

In the week ending February 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 192,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 194,000 to 195,000. The 4-week moving average was 191,250, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 189,500 to 189,750.

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment that orders a Salinas labor contractor – who withheld final paychecks and transportation expenses – to hundreds of farmworkers to pay more than $460,000 in damages and penalties, following the department’s investigation and litigation.