WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor announced today its Veterans’ Employment and Training Service has signed a memorandum of understanding with seven new partners for the agency’s Employment Navigator and Partnership Pilot. With these additions, a total of 47 partners now support the initiative.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued citations at three more Amazon warehouses – in Aurora, Colorado; Nampa, Idaho; and Castleton, New York – for failing to keep workers safe and delivered hazard alert letters for exposing workers to ergonomic hazards.

COLUMBUS, OH – A complaint of unsafe work conditions brought federal safety inspectors to a Columbus, Ohio, Dollar Tree store where their findings – employees exposed fire hazards and in danger of unsafely stored and stacked boxes of merchandise falling on them – mirror those violations identified at many other U.S. locations operated by one of the nation’s largest discount retailers.

Date of Action: Jan. 18, 2023 

Type of Action: Fair Labor Standards Act consent judgement

Defendants: Maya Restaurant Inc. operating as Maya Mexican Restaurant, Rigoberto Cobain 

DENVER - El Departamento de Trabajo de EE. UU. ha recuperado $203,332 en salarios atrasados después de que se descubriera por una investigación que una empresa de paisajismo de Denver, propiedad de un padre e hijo (Fermin y Roberto Daniel Guardado), negó los salarios por horas extras a 14 trabajadores y no mantuvo registros completos según requiere la ley.

DENVER – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $203,332 in back wages after an investigation found a Denver landscaping company owned by a father and son – Fermin and Roberto Daniel Guardado – denied overtime wages to 14 workers, and failed to keep complete records as the law requires.

The department also barred the company from hiring H-2B workers for five years for its violations of the H-2B worker program.

KANSAS CITY, MO ‒ A fourth-year apprentice heating, ventilation and air conditioning technician employed by U.S. Engineering Services suffered fatal electrocution after coming in contact with energized parts while repairing HVAC equipment on Aug. 24, 2022, at University Academy, a college prep charter school in Kansas City, Missouri.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that it is accepting applications for the 2023 HIRE Vets Medallion Award. The award is presented annually to employers that meet standards for excellence in the recruitment, hiring and retention of America’s military veterans.

HARTFORD, CT – A federal investigation has found a Manchester contractor’s failure to provide legally required safeguards and make sure they were in place to prevent trench collapses contributed to the July 22, 2022, death of an employee buried when an 8-foot-deep trench caved in.

LAS VEGAS – After a 2013 investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor that recovered $47,393 from a Nevada paint and specialty coatings contractor and its owner whose illegal pay practices denied 21 Utah workers overtime wages, a reasonable employer might try to avoid repeating a bad and costly decision.

Cory Summerhays, owner of Unforgettable Coatings Inc. – a Las Vegas company operating in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Utah – chose instead to double down, and then some. 

WASHINGTON – The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s Interagency Labor Committee for Monitoring and Enforcement today requested that the government of Mexico conduct another review at the VU Manufacturing parts facility in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, in response to an allegation the facility continues to deny workers’ rights.

AURORA, IL – While workers at a local supermarket stocked shelves, operated cash registers and served customers Mexican hot foods and baked goods, their Aurora employer was denying them their hard-earned overtime pay for two years, the U.S. Department of Labor recently found.

After its investigation, the department’s Wage and Hour Division has recovered a total of $399,851 in back wages and liquidated damages for 49 workers at Supermercado Carrera, a family-owned supermarket.

AURORA, IL – El Departamento de Trabajo de EE.UU. descubrió recientemente que mientras que los trabajadores de un supermercado local de Aurora suplían estanterías, operaban cajas registradoras y servían a los clientes comidas y productos mexicanos, su empleador les negó durante dos años sus pagos por horas extra.

JOLIET, IL – Federal investigators have found a Joliet restaurant and catering company illegally employed 25 minor-aged workers as bussers, runners and dishwashers after 7 p.m. on school nights and 9 p.m. on weekends, and some more than 18 hours a week, and denied seven other workers overtime for hours over 40 in workweek.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued new enforcement guidance to make its penalties more effective in stopping employers from repeatedly exposing workers to life-threatening hazards or failing to comply with certain workplace safety and health requirements.

KINGMAN, KS ‒ A Kingman plastics manufacturer’s failure to make sure required safety procedures were followed contributed to the death of a worker who suffered fatal injuries when he became entangled in a rotating part inside a bagging machine while trying to clear a jam, a federal workplace safety investigation found.

GAINESVILLE, FL – A Gainesville psychiatric and substance abuse hospital has implemented a series of changes to their safety protocols after the U.S. Department of Labor cited the facility for failing to protect employees from workplace violence after a series of incidents left employees with serious injuries.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its selection of 10 states and the District of Columbia to participate as “core states” in its National Expansion of Employment Opportunities Network initiative.

BRECKENRIDGE, CO – The owner of a Vail construction company facing a felony manslaughter charge has surrendered to local law enforcement after the Summit County Judge Edward J. Casias issued an arrest warrant on Jan. 23, 2023, related to the findings of a federal safety investigation into a deadly trench collapse in November 2021.

Employer:                  Senior Healthcare Advisors LLC

Investigation site:      816 S Military Trail

                                    Deerfield Beach, FL 33442