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☆ A Mississippi restaurant repaid $169,000 to workers who got less than the minimum wage, the DOL said
▼ + stars: | 2022-05-26 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A Mississippi restaurant paid some kitchen workers less than the minimum wage, the DOL said. The restaurant paid $168,864 in back wages and damages to 17 workers, the DOL said. Mississippi doesn't have a state minimum wage, and instead uses the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. The restaurant paid a combined $168,864 in back wages and liquidated damages to 17 workers, the DOL said. Low wages, lack of benefits, and poor working conditions helped drive millions of restaurant workers to quit their jobs during the pandemic.

☆ A lumber manufacturer faces a near-$54,000 fine after a worker was struck by a forklift and died
▼ + stars: | 2022-05-24 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A worker died after a forklift struck her at a shipping yard in Alabama in November, the DOL said. Sunbelt Forest Products failed to follow safety standards and faces a $54,000 fine, the DOL said. Sunbelt Forest Products is owned by UFP Industries. Sunbelt Forest Products and UFP didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment made outside of regular working hours. At the time of the incident, Sunbelt Forest Products President Ken Dell Donne told News 19 that the company was investigating.

☆ A Kroger store in Mississippi broke child labor laws by letting minors operate hazardous machinery, DOL says
▼ + stars: | 2022-05-18 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Kroger store in Mississippi let minors operate hazardous machinery and work too long, DOL said. The store was fined almost $14,000 for breaking child labor laws, it said. Three stores operated by Kroger subsidiary Fred Meyer also broke laws on hazardous machinery: DOL. However, child labor regulations set by the Fair Labor Standards Act prohibit those under the age of 18 from loading or operating trash compactors. The DOL said that the store should pay a $13,673 civil penalty for the child labor violations.

☆ LinkedIn agrees to pay $1.8 million to female workers after the DOL said they were paid less than their male counterparts
▼ + stars: | 2022-05-04 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Some female LinkedIn workers in California were paid less than their male counterparts, the DOL said. LinkedIn has agreed to pay $1.8 million to nearly 700 affected workers in a conciliation agreement. The OFCCP said that after controlling for other factors, LinkedIn paid some female employees "at a statistically significant lower rate than their male counterparts, which if proven, could result in a violation of the Executive Order." Under a conciliation agreement between the company and the DOL, LinkedIn will pay around $1.75 million in back wages and more than $50,000 in interest to 686 workers. Full-time female workers in the US on average earned 16.9% less than male workers in 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

☆ An employee at an Illinois food manufacturer lost a finger after getting it stuck in a machine, the labor department said
▼ + stars: | 2022-04-27 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A worker at an Illinois food manufacturer lost their finger after it got stuck in a machine, the DOL said. The DOL cited Hearthside Food Solutions and asked it to pay $231,625 in penalties. In a press release, the Department of Labor said Friday that it has cited Hearthside Food Solutions 20 times "for exposing workers to amputation and other serious hazards." In the citation, OSHA asked Hearthside to pay $231,625 in penalties for three violations related to the carton-closing machine. Hearthside Food should immediately re-evaluate its training and safety procedures at all of its facilities."

☆ A Pennsylvania home care agency was ordered to pay $1.2 million to workers who the DOL says didn't get correct overtime wages
▼ + stars: | 2022-04-21 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A home care agency in Pennsylvania failed to pay correct overtime wages to around 200 staff, the DOL said. A court ordered the company and its owner to pay $1.16 million in back wages and damages. From around April 2020, Nursing Care in Home started paying an overtime premium to some employees but not for others, the DOL said. Some employees' overtime premium was calculated incorrectly because the company didn't factor a $240 bi-weekly hazard pay bonus into their standard rate of pay, the DOL said. "The Wage and Hour Division will not tolerate the exploitation of care workers or attempts to circumvent federal overtime laws."

☆ Restaurants in Oregon illegally withheld tips from workers and even let managers take some, the DOL says
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-03 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An Oregon restaurant chain withheld tips from workers and let managers take a portion, the DOL said. The DOL recovered almost $170,000 in back wages and liquefied damages for 118 workers. The DOL said it recovered almost $170,000 for 118 workers at the three branches of KKOKI in Portland, Eugene, and Salem. Millions of restaurant workers quit their jobs during the pandemic because of low wages, lack of benefits, and poor working conditions. The DOL said it recovered $84,864 in back wages for staff and the same amount in liquidated damages.

☆ A Florida restaurant didn't pay wages to servers and forced them to work 'for tips alone', the labor department says
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-24 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Florida restaurant forced servers to work "for tips alone" by not paying them wages, the DOL said. Rosy's Mexican Restaurant also didn't give other staff an overtime premium, the DOL said. The DOL said that the restaurant owed 10 workers a combined $118,042 in back wages and liquidated damages. Millions of restaurant workers quit their jobs during the pandemic because of low wages, lack of benefits, and poor working conditions. Under state law, restaurants have to pay workers a minimum of $6.98 an hour, provided staff earn at least $3.02 an hour in tips.

☆ An Idaho potato farm threatened to fire foreign workers and deport them to Mexico if they didn't accept wages below the legal limit, the DOL says
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-23 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An Idaho potato farm intentionally violated H-2A rules and underpaid guest workers, the DOL said. The farm even threatened to end their contracts if they didn't accept illegal wages, per the DOL. Jorgensen Management, a potato farm in Bancroft, southeast Idaho, gave workers nearly $160,000 in unpaid wages after a DOL investigation. But Jorgensen Management didn't pay guest workers for inbound transportation costs or meet housing safety and health standards, the DOL said. The farm also failed to pay the required rates to 69 domestic workers hired alongside H-2A visa workers, per the DOL.

☆ A Texas farm owned by one of the US' biggest potato growers paid over $1.3 million in back wages to workers after denying them overtime pay
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-21 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A farm in Texas owned by one of the US' biggest potato growers didn't pay overtime premiums, the DOL found. The DOL says it had since recovered more than $1.3 million in back pay for almost 500 warehouse workers. The Dalhart, Texas farm – operated by Blaine Larsen Farms, one of the US' biggest potato growers – also failed to properly report an outbreak of COVID-19, the DOL said. The department said that it had recovered almost $1.35 million in back wages for the warehouse workers. The labor department said it also investigated Larsen Farms twice in 2020.

☆ A Florida security contractor fired a worker via Signal chat 10 minutes after they raised concerns about COVID-19 safety, lawsuit says
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-16 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Florida security contractor fired a worker after they raised concerns about COVID-19 safety, a lawsuit says. The worker also raised concerns about firearm storage, said the Department of Labor, which is bringing the suit. Employees at companies including Amazon, GameStop, and Instacart have complained about unsafe working conditions during the pandemic, including a lack of personal protective equipment, hazard pay, and clear COVID-19 safety policies. The worker raised concerns about the relocation in a group chat with supervisors on encrypted-messaging app Signal, citing concerns about COVID-19 policies and secure firearm storage, the lawsuit says. VRP Group fired the worker in the Signal chat "less than ten minutes after his first text asking about the COVID-19 protocols," the DOL says in the lawsuit.

☆ A federal court ordered a New Jersey company and its co-managers to pay $712,000 to staff for deliberately denying overtime pay
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-11 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A New Jersey company violated labor laws by not paying staff for the full hours they worked, the DOL said. The firm also failed to keep accurate records of staff hours and wages, the DOL said in a lawsuit. A federal court ordered the company and its co-managers to pay staff $712,000 in back wages and damages. Employees regularly worked between 45 and 54 hours a week, but the company didn't pay staff extra for overtime, the DOL said. The company paid staff in cash for overtime hours and told them not to clock out "to conceal the fact that employees worked more than forty hours a week," per the lawsuit.

☆ Workforce at Alabama chicken plants includes migrant teens
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +20 min

At Amelia’s request, Reuters agreed not to identify her hometown, the chicken plant where she now works, or the exact job she performs there. She said she was determined to get here because Rosa told her she could find work quickly. Amelia provided her new credentials to a staffing firm that supplies laborers to a local chicken plant, she said. Some firms deduct as much as $40 a week from employees’ paychecks for the service, four workers told Reuters. She rarely leaves Rosa’s trailer except to head to and from the chicken plant.

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