WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has launched a survey of private sector employers as a tool toward better designing future rules, compliance assistance and outreach efforts. As many as 19,000 employers nationwide will receive the Baseline Survey of Safety and Health Practices, which asks questions about workplace safety and health management practices.

TUCKER, Ga. – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued fiduciaries of architectural company Milton Pate and Associates seeking to recover $135,516 for participants and beneficiaries of the company’s 401(k) profit-sharing plan.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, alleges that the defendants violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by taking prohibited loans from the plan and not forwarding employee contributions to the plan in a timely manner.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued defunct mental health services provider Embrenche LLC and the company’s owners, Marty Hickman, Joe Parker and Avery Hairston, for allegedly violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.  The lawsuit alleges that the defendants diverted employees’ contributions away from the company’s 401(k) profit-sharing plan, and failed to administer and terminate the plan after the company ceased operating.

FLETCHER, N.C. – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued former Fletcher-based Unicomp Inc. and its chief executive officer, Stephen Hafer, to restore losses suffered by participants in the company’s health plan.

STAFFORD, Texas – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued oil field equipment and machine parts manufacturer MWDay Group Inc., doing business as Paradigm Machine Works Inc., in Stafford, and its owner and president, Michael W. Day.  The lawsuit alleges that the defendants failed to forward employee contributions and matching employer contributions to the company’s 401(k) plan in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a $1.5 million National Emergency Grant incremental award to assist workers affected by the closure of Fort Monmouth in New Jersey. Under this grant, about 1,345 workers to be dislocated between now and September 2011 will be provided with training and re-employment services over the next year.

National Emergency Grant to fund temporary jobs in 19 counties

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a $3,589,704 National Emergency Grant to assist with clean-up and recovery efforts in the wake of the severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds and associated flooding that struck Tennessee last month.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA In the week ending May 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 409,000, a decrease of 29,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 438,000. The 4-week moving average was 439,000, an increase of 1,250 from the previous week's revised average of 437,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.0 percent for the week ending May 7, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 3.0 percent.

SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a judgment requiring Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Inc. and president Mordechai Orian to pay $153,000 in back wages to 88 temporary agricultural workers from Thailand employed in Hawaii, plus $194,000 in civil money penalties, for committing significant violations of the federal H-2A temporary nonimmigrant agricultural laborer program.

36 states, District of Columbia, US Virgin Islands receiving funding

Proposed penalties total $563,000

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration tomorrow will reopen the public record on a proposed rule to revise the Occupational Injury and Illness Recording and Reporting Requirements regulation. Notice of the reopening will be published May 17 in the Federal Register.

CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa. — The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment and order to restore $41,093 to the employee benefit plan of now-defunct Dalton Mechanical Services Inc., formerly located in Clarks Summit. The action resolves a lawsuit filed by the department in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania against the company and Scott Slocum, its president and co-owner. A default judgment also was entered against the company.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATAIn the week ending May 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 434,000, a decrease of 44,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 478,000. The 4-week moving average was 436,750, an increase of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average of 432,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.0 percent for the week ending April 30, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 3.0 percent.

CHICAGO – A U.S. district court has upheld a subpoena issued by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration requesting documents from Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Co. concerning inspections and reports the company prepared for Haasbach LLC. Two teenage workers were killed in a grain engulfment at Haasbach's Mount Carroll, Ill., site in July 2010.

Date of Action:  May 12, 2011

Type of Action:  Complaint

Name(s) of Defendant: Thomas Keating, individually and as a trustee to the Mitchellace Inc. Employee Flexible Benefits Plan located in Portsmouth, Ohio.

Allegations: During the period of Nov. 5, 2008, to June 10, 2009, defendant Keating caused Mitchellace to withhold $14,615.94 from employees’ pay in employee health premium contributions and failed to forward them to the Plan.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a $463,083 National Emergency Grant to provide training and re-employment services to about 75 workers affected by layoffs at Maine Military Authority in Limestone, Maine.

"This grant will provide affected workers in Maine with access to services that will help them in preparing for good jobs in the state's growing industries," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor has announced a $6,498,100 National Emergency Grant to assist clean-up and recovery efforts in the aftermath of the tsunami waves that struck California's Crescent City in Del Norte County and coastal areas of Santa Cruz County on March 11, following the magnitude-9 earthquake in Japan.

WASHINGTON — Sandra Polaski, deputy undersecretary of labor for international affairs, today testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance to discuss labor rights and conditions in Colombia, the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement's labor provisions and the Colombian Action Plan Related to Labor Rights.

WASHINGTON Malcolm-Jamal Warren, a student at the Guthrie Job Corps Center in Guthrie, Okla., created a unique picture that depicts the beauty of the Gulf Coast, which has been used as part of an award honoring the service and dedication of U.S. Department of Labor employees during the aftermath of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.