WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a funding availability of up to $1 million in grants through its Brookwood-Sago grant program to support education and training to help the mining community identify, avoid and prevent unsafe and unhealthy working conditions in and around the nation’s mines.

In the week ending June 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 229,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 229,000 to 231,000. The 4-week moving average was 223,500, an increase of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 218,500 to 219,000.

BOSTON – A federal jury in the District of Massachusetts has found that a Massachusetts employer and his company retaliated against an employee who reported an on-the-job injury. The jury awarded $650,000 in damages – $600,000 in punitive damages and $50,000 in compensatory damages – as a result.

SEATTLE – Una investigación del Departamento de Trabajo de EE.UU. que descubrió las costosas fallas de un contratista de mano de obra agrícola a la hora de proteger a trabajadores del campo temporales y migrantes dio un giro inesperado cuando los investigadores descubrieron que el empleador había negado a 165 de estos trabajadores más de $80,000 en salarios por horas extra dedicadas a limpiar el popular Anfiteatro Gorge.

GUAYNABO, PR – Un juez federal ha ordenado que dos restaurantes de San Juan y sus dueños paguen una suma de $31,630 a 19 trabajadores después de que los dueños retuvieran los salarios atrasados que aseguraron al Departamento de Trabajo de EE. UU. que pagarían a los empleados después de que una investigación descubriera que sus prácticas de pago infringían la ley federal.

GUAYNABO, PR – A federal judge has ordered two San Juan restaurants and their owners to pay a total of $31,630 to 19 workers after the owners withheld back wages they assured the U.S. Department of Labor they would pay the employees after an investigation found their pay practices violated federal law.

ATLANTA – Federal workplace safety inspectors determined that an Atlanta recycling company exposed workers to hazardous chemicals without warning them of the risks. This is the third time since 2019 that the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the company for similar violations.

MARS, PA – An industrial insulation contractor in Ohio entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to resolve litigation prompted by the findings of a June 2020 investigation into the fatal fall of one worker and serious injuries suffered by three others after they fell from a roof and scaffold at an indoor horse-riding facility in Mars. 

CANTON, OH – A workplace safety investigation into a 65-year-old worker’s fatal crushing injuries at TimkenSteel in Canton found the company failed to install guards or provide proper hand tools to prevent workers from entanglement hazards while operating a bar straightener machine.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that, in recognition of the vital role people with disabilities play in making the nation’s workforce diverse and inclusive, “Disability: Part of the Equity Equation” has been chosen as the theme for October’s National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2022.

ATLANTA – The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia has ordered the owner of a Stone Mountain insurance agency to pay $50,000 in back wages and liquidated damages to a worker terminated after inquiring about pay. 

LAS VEGAS - Una reciente investigación federal descubrió que una empresa de paisajismo de Reno (que emplea trabajadores expuestos al exterior, incluso en los días de verano en que la temperatura puede alcanzar los 90 grados) pagó de menos intencionalmente a 57 de sus trabajadores al negarles los salarios por horas extras que les debían.

LAS VEGAS – A recent federal investigation has found that a Reno landscaping company – that employs workers exposed to the outdoors, including on summer days when temperatures can peak at 90 degrees – intentionally shortchanged 57 of its workers by denying them overtime wages they were owed.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh joined Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Rep.

WASHINGTON – As the part of today’s publication of the Spring 2022 Regulatory Agenda by the Biden-Harris administration, the U.S. Department of Labor’s agenda has been posted online.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Departments of Labor and Commerce today released the “Good Jobs Principles,” a coordinated effort to provide employers, workers, federal agencies, state and local governments, and other advocates with a roadmap to advance the goal of quality jobs for all workers.

LUZERNE, PA – Despite the dangers of falls – a leading cause of construction industry deaths – a Strasburg framing contractor ignored federal workplace standards and exposed workers to falls as high as 14 feet while working at a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation facility.

SUCCASUNNA, NJ - Un tribunal federal ha aprobado una sentencia acordada que ordena que una empresa de paisajismo de Succasunna y su dueño paguen $400,000 en salarios atrasados y daños y perjuicios después de que una investigación del Departamento de Trabajo de EE. UU. descubriera que el empleador les negó a 32 de sus trabajadores el pago de horas extras que ganaron.

WASHINGTON – The Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, which includes the U.S. Department of Labor as a member, today issued the “Strategy to Prevent Importation of Goods Mined, Produced, or Manufactured with Forced Labor in the People’s Republic of China,” as required by the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

SEATTLE – A U.S. Department of Labor investigation that uncovered a farm labor contractor’s already costly failures to protect migrant and seasonal agricultural workers took an unexpected turn when investigators found the same employer had denied 165 farm laborers more than $80,000 in overtime wages for hours spent cleaning the popular Gorge Amphitheater.