Employer name: APDC Services Inc., 3059 Michigan Ave., Kissimmee, Florida 34744

Investigation sites:

In the week ending September 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 259,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 263,000. The 4-week moving average was 261,250, a decrease of 1,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 263,000.

VAN BUREN, Mo. – In an emergency, a blocked exit can be the difference between life and death for employees and customer alike. Yet, Dollar General – one of the nation’s largest discount retailers – continues to ignore federal workplace safety inspectors who have found repeated instances where the company allows stacked merchandise to block exit routes.

NEW ORLEANS – Two Gulf Coast staffing agencies have agreed to paid 353 workers nearly $516,000 in back wages after U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigators found they classified employees incorrectly as independent contractors and mislabeled wages as per-diem reimbursement for expenses never incurred.

PERRYSBURG, Ohio ‒ For the second time in five months, federal inspectors have cited an Indiana framing contractor for failing to protect workers from fall hazards on residential construction sites. Preventable falls account for nearly 40 percent of all deaths in the construction industry.

Employer name: Keystone Foods

Inspection site: 57 Melvin Clark Road, Bakerhill, Alabama 36027

Citations issued: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations to Keystone Foods on Sept. 6, 2016, for 12 serious safety violations.

LANSING, Ill. – For a Joliet construction contractor in business more than 50 years, the dangers of working in an unprotected trench should be nothing new. Yet, the company’s history of allowing employees to work in unsafe trenches continues – this time to excavate utility lines 7-feet deep in June 2016 at a Torrence Avenue job site.

Employers’ name: Austin Constructors LLC and Muniz Concrete and Contracting Inc.

Worksite location: Colorado St., Austin, Texas 78701

Citations issued: Sept. 6, 2016

ATLANTA – As they recover from the impacts of Hermine, a hurricane that continued as a tropical storm, Florida’s emergency workers, employers and the public at-large should be aware of the hazards they may encounter and take necessary steps to stay safe, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration urges.

CEDARBURG, Wis. – As he hand-polished a 40-inch long metal cylinder, a 36-year-old lathe operator became entangled in the machine’s operating spindle and suffered injuries that led to his death two days later.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez issued the following statement about the August 2016 Employment Situation report released today:

Participants: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Corpus Christi Area Office and the Mexican Consulates in Brownsville and Laredo, Texas.

Employer name: AJ New Construction and Repair Inc.

Inspection site(s): 506 Heron Landing Road, St. Johns, Florida 32259
1684 W. State St., Jacksonville, Florida 32209

Citations issued: OSHA issued citations to the employer on Aug. 26, 2016.

Participants: U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Workers Defense Project

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Federal workplace safety and health inspectors have cited York Metal Toll Processing Inc. for exposing employees to uncorrected electrical, crushing and respiratory hazards, as well as recurring amputation hazards.

Participants: U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division
Nebraska Department of Labor

State: Ohio

Type of Award: National Dislocated Worker Grant

Initial Amount Approved: $2,000,000

Incremental Amount Awarded: $1,083,750

Funding Awarded to: Ohio Department of Job and Family Services

Number of Workers Served: Approximately 221

NEW YORK – For more than a dozen sales clerks, cashiers, stock clerks and security guards at three beauty supply stores in the Bronx and Brooklyn, the hours were long but too often, their pay came up short.

Now, as a result of a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation and the department’s litigation, their employers must pay the 16 workers a total of $218,000 in back wages and liquidated damages.

Employer name: Roadmaster Transportation Inc.

Investigation site: 1640 Stone Ridge Drive, Stone Mountain, Georgia 30083

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – Concerned because they were experiencing sore throats, headaches and difficulty with breathing, employees of Quest Diagnostic Corp.’s Ameripath diagnostic laboratory in Shelton filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The agency’s Bridgeport Area Office began an inspection on March 6, 2016.