KILLEEN, TX – While media organizations depend on their reporters’ abilities to expose issues of public concern, a journalist at the Killeen Daily Herald found themselves out of a job when they complained to the newspaper’s management that they believed fleas had infested their workplace, leaving them with bug bites.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor announced the availability of up to $4 million in funding to support the Economic Community of West African States and the Government of Nigeria in their efforts to address child labor in agricultural communities. 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced availability of up to $5 million in grant funding to support efforts to address abusive labor practices, particularly in cattle-raising areas of Brazil and Paraguay.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of grant funding of $12 million to the American Institutes for Research to empower federal and state labor inspectors in Mexico to improve enforcement of Mexico’s landmark 2019 labor law reform in five of its states.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – A worker performing maintenance inside a cement mixer at a Colorado Springs concrete manufacturing company narrowly escaped fatal injuries when a co-worker turned the machine on. A U.S. Department of Labor investigation determined the company’s failure to comply with federal workplace safety standards nearly cost the worker their life.

POPLAR BLUFF, MO – A U.S. Department of Labor investigation has recovered $171,834 for 75 servers, sushi and hibachi chefs employed at a Poplar Bluff restaurant where numerous violations of federal wage and hour laws denied some workers their full tips, and all of them, their legally earned wages.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor kicked off Labor Rights Week 2022 today with the first in a series of nationwide events at the Consular Section of the Mexican Embassy in Washington.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor announced the award of $8 million to support a four-year cooperative agreement with the National Disability Institute to operate a policy development center focused on employment for people with disabilities.

Administered by the department’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, the cooperative agreement awards about $2 million each year, with a total availability of approximately $8 million during its 48-month term.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today launched an online portal to help contracting officers, contractors and subcontractors to provide required notices of federal construction contracts and subcontract awards.

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court ruled unanimously on Aug. 22, 2022, that the operator of a Lake County, Minnesota, iron ore mine flagrantly violated the federal Mine Safety and Health Act when it directed miners to work on an elevated walkway known to be unsafe for more than a year.

ATLANTA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration signed a strategic partnership with Balfour Beatty Construction to promote worker safety and health during construction of the 1018 West Peachtree Project in Atlanta.

In the week ending August 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 243,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 5,000 from 250,000 to 245,000. The 4-week moving average was 247,000, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 1,250 from 246,750 to 245,500.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of $3.4 million in funding to help recruit, train and retain more women in quality pre-apprenticeship and Registered Apprenticeship programs, as well as nontraditional occupations.

DUETTE, FL – A federal workplace safety investigation has found a 35-year-old farmworker died from heat illness on a Duette farm in the early evening of April 5, 2022. It was only his second day on the job.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of $50 million in Apprenticeship Building America grant funding for Registered Apprenticeship hubs – organizations that help employers design, develop and deliver programs – and support the establishment, scaling and expansion of Registered Apprenticeship programs in new and fast-growing industries and occupations.

ATLANTA - An ongoing federal initiative to ensure that Southeast employers comply with federal laws regarding the employment of temporary nonimmigrant workers with H-2B guest visas has made significant progress in holding violators accountable for infringing on workers’ rights.

SUAMICO, WI – On a chilly March morning, a federal workplace safety inspector observed five roofers atop a Wrightstown residence, working at heights up to 23 feet without required fall protection. The inspector later found the fall protection equipment piled in a bucket on the ground next to a work truck.   

AKRON, OH – A Dundee contractor with a long history of federal workplace safety violations has added an additional $228,126 in fines to $108,318 in unpaid penalties with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for again exposing workers to potential deadly fall hazards, this time at an Akron job site.

Employer name:                   IV Waste LLC

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of nearly $26 million in grant funding to improve how unemployment insurance benefits are delivered to people facing obstacles to access in California, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada and West Virginia.