WASHINGTON — Ensuring that women earn equal pay for equal work is essential to improving the economic security of our families and the strength of our middle class. In too many workplaces around the country, however, a culture of secrecy keeps women from knowing that they are underpaid, and makes it difficult to enforce equal pay laws.

State: Maine

Type of Award: National Dislocated Worker Grant

Supplemental Amount Released: $336,233

Initial Award Amount Released: $284,879

Funding Awarded to: Maine Department of Labor

Number of Workers Served: Approximately 262

Date of Action: Sept. 9, 2015

Type of Action: Consent Judgment and Order

Defendants: American Materials Corp. and Donald J. Bercowetz

Employer Name: RSCR West Virginia Inc., doing business as Community Alternatives WV, is a subsidiary of ResCare Inc. that provides home health care for individuals with disabilities throughout West Virginia.

Investigation Site: 305 Water Street, Stonewood, West Virginia, 26301 and locations in Clarksburg, Keyser, Parkersburg, Buckhannon, Huntington, and Charleston, West Virginia.

SALT LAKE CITY — For most children, fall begins a new school year full of possibilities to learn and prepare for their lives ahead and future jobs. Unfortunately, for hundreds of children in southern Utah and northern Arizona, the season is a time for hard work harvesting pecans by hand for commercial sale.

BOSTON — Fruit and vegetable wholesaler Snipped Fresh Produce Inc. had employees cut, weigh and package vegetables for $8 per hour, and many worked more than 40 hours per week for no overtime pay.

WASHINGTON — Education and job training are among the surest pathways to the middle class. To mark the beginning of the school year, the President, the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, and Secretary Arne Duncan will travel across the country in the coming days to highlight the need for affordable, quality career and education choices for students and to discuss some of the many ways the Administration is working to provide all Americans with the skills and knowledge they need to acquire good-paying jobs and grow the economy.

CORDOVA, Ill. — A 45-year-old lost part of three fingers when his left hand caught in a table saw at a Cordova company that fabricates reusable shipping containers. Doctors reattached the fingers, but had to amputate the tip of his left middle finger. The employee has been unable to return to work.

Agency cites Mason Well Service in Odessa, Texas, for 6 workplace violations

LUBBOCK, Texas — An Upton County oil rig inferno killed family members Arturo Martinez Sr., Arturo Martinez Jr. and Rogelio Salgado in March 2015 as they worked to install a blowout preventer, which seals, controls and monitors a rig.

Participants: U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division and the State of Hawaii's Department of Labor and Industrial Relations

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez issued the following statement about the August 2015 Employment Situation report released today:

"The strong and steady recovery of the U.S. economy continued last month, with the addition of 173,000 new jobs. August was the 66th consecutive month of private sector job growth with private employers having now created 13.1 million jobs since the beginning of 2010.

Participants: U.S. Department of Labor, Vermont Department of Labor

Date of Action: Aug. 19, 2015

Type of Action: Fair Labor Standards Act Consent Judgment

Names of Defendants: Krenek Motors Inc., d/b/a Krenek RV and Scott Krenek

Resolution: A judge has ordered Krenek RV and its owner, Scott Krenek, to pay two recreational vehicle technicians a total of $11,478 in unpaid overtime compensation and damages.

Type of Action: Fair Labor Standards Act Lawsuit

Name of Defendant: Confidential Services Inc., Beverlee Sokol, and Katrina Levy Zidel

Employers' names: Hensel Phelps Construction Co. and CVI Development LLC

Citations issued: Sept. 3, 2015

DENVER — When an employee of a Utah based company discovered possible evidence of securities fraud, he spoke up about his internal investigations and concerns the company was making false representations to potential clients. The company responded by discharging him.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated the employee's wrongful termination complaint filed in May 2013 and found that reporting the results of the securities fraud investigation and voicing concerns were factors in his dismissal.

Worker's complaint prompts OSHA investigation

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, N.J. — In a three-month period this year, health care workers at Bergen Regional Medical Center LP in Paramus were victims of violent patients in eight incidents, including one in which a nurse suffered a laceration and bruises attempting to stop an attack on a patient.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has awarded $10.5 million in one-year federal safety and health training grants to 80 nonprofit organizations across the nation for education and training programs to help high-risk workers and their employers recognize serious workplace hazards, implement injury prevention measures and understand their rights and responsibilities.