HOUSTON, TX – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Rockonwireless Inc. – doing business as Metro T-Mobile in Houston, Texas – will pay $900 in back wages after failing to provide an employee with coronavirus symptoms paid sick leave after their doctor ordered them to self-quarantine for two weeks, in violation of the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act, part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).

RALEIGH, NC – The U.S. District Court Eastern District of North Carolina, in Raleigh, North Carolina, has sentenced former union president Keith Alan Ludlum to 14 months in prison and ordered him to pay $213,201 in restitution after a U.S. Department of Labor Office of Labor-Management Standards’ (OLMS) investigation.

CLEVELAND, OH – The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio has issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the Fleet Owners Insurance Fund from paying or advancing attorneys’ fees to any of the defendants in a U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) enforcement case.

MEDLEY, FL – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Martinez Truss Co. – a manufacturer based in Medley, Florida – has paid an employee $4,352 in back wages for wrongly denying paid sick leave to an employee who requested time off to care for their child. The child’s school closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

SUMMERFIELD, NC – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Mt. Airy Partners Inc. – a Summerfield, North Carolina-based enterprise operating 12 McDonald’s restaurants in North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad Region – has paid a civil money penalty of $17,586 for violating child labor requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

CLEVELAND, OH – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited healthcare company OHNH EMP LLC for violating respiratory protection standards following an inspection initiated after the company reported the coronavirus-related hospitalization of seven employees.  

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor recently concluded successful negotiations with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Local 12 for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). AFGE Local 12 covers approximately 2,700 Department of Labor employees in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The prior CBA was effective from Aug. 29, 2013.

SAN JUAN, PR – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) and litigation by the Department’s Office of the Solicitor, the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico has entered a default judgment ordering a group of four interrelated Puerto Rico security guard companies and their principals to pay a total of $715,685 in back wages and damages to 400 employees for their willful violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

IDAHO FALLS, IDAHO – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), JM Concrete Inc. – based in Idaho Falls, Idaho – has paid $92,290 in back wages to 27 employees for violating prevailing wage requirements on the Lorenzo Bridge Rehabilitation project on State Highway 20 in Jefferson and Madison counties.

WEST COVINA, CA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) announced today that it will offer a webinar on July 21, 2020, to help employers and employees in Southern California’s Filipino communities understand the benefits and protections provided by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). The webinar will be offered in Tagalog.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today published additional guidance for workers and employers on how the protections and requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) affect the workplace as workplaces reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic.

WEST PALM BEACH, FL – The Boys & Girls Club of Palm Beach County has paid $1,040 in back wages to an employee after the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) determined the employer violated paid sick leave requirements of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).

WASHINGTON, DC – Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor took a range of actions to aid American workers and employers as our nation combats the coronavirus pandemic.

Reopening America’s Economy:

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor announced the availability of up to $400,000 in grant funding through its Brookwood-Sago grant program to support education and training to help identify, avoid and prevent unsafe working conditions in, and around, the nation’s mines.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia traveled to North Carolina with Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC-05), the Republican Leader of the House Education and Labor Committee, to highlight the nation’s continued economic recovery from the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Secretary Scalia first visited U.S. Cotton in Belmont, where he met with workers and company leadership to discuss workplace safety, economic re-opening and the recent entry into force of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Secretary Scalia and Rep.

WASHINGTON, DC – Solicitor of Labor Kate O’Scannlain and Assistant Secretary for the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) David G. Zatezalo issued the following statement regarding today’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in In re: United Mine Workers of America International Union and United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO-CLC, No. 20-1215:

WEST COVINA, CA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) announced today that it will offer webinars on July 23, 2020, to help employers and employees in Southern California’s Chinese communities understand the benefits and protections provided by the paid sick leave provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). Webinars will be offered in both Mandarin and Cantonese.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) today announced significant steps to streamline optional-use forms that workers can use to request and employers can use to coordinate leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

COUNTY OF CARVER, MN – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), the County of Carver, Minnesota, has paid an employee $1,136 in back wages for wrongly denying the worker’s request for paid leave to care for her child when her daycare center closed amid the coronavirus pandemic, a violation of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).

In the week ending July 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 1,300,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 4,000 from 1,314,000 to 1,310,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,375,000, a decrease of 60,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 2,250 from 1,437,250 to 1,435,000.