News and reports from the Department of Labor.

News Release: BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has awarded the agency’s Alliance Program Ambassador designation to Lamar Advertising Co., one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising firms. The award recognizes the company’s continued partnership with OSHA to address workplace safety and health hazards in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

News Release: WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh issued the following statement on the October 2021 Employment Situation Report: “Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the American economy added 531,000 jobs in the month of October, and the unemployment rate was 4.6 percent, down from 4.8 ...

News Release: WASHINGTON – In 2010, the state of Rhode Island estimated 153 drug overdose deaths, with 36 of them blamed on illicit drugs. A decade later, 384 residents fatally overdosed with 275 attributed to illicit drugs.

News Release: WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today presented the 2021 Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing American Military Veterans Medallion Award to 849 employers from across the nation at a virtual ceremony. The annual awards recognize employers across the nation for their investment in recruiting, employing and retaining veterans.

News Release: WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor, National Labor Relations Board and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission today announced a joint initiative to raise awareness about retaliation issues when workers exercise their protected labor rights.

News Release: EL PASO, TX – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced its renewal of a three-year alliance with T&T Staff Management Inc. to provide construction and general industry workers and companies with whom T&T works with information about workplace hazards and resources that promote workers’ rights and safe, healthful workplaces.

News Release: NASHVILLE, TN – Errors in calculating overtime wages of workers who provided lessons, merchandise sales and equipment services to members and guests at a private Nashville country club led the U.S. Department of Labor to recover $93,750 in back wages and liquidated damages for 12 workers.

News Release: KANSAS CITY, MO ‒ Electrical hazards killed four workers in Missouri and Kansas in five months in 2021. In Missouri, on Oct. 4, a 40-year-old electrical contractor replacing light fixtures in Sedalia. On Sept. 23, a 22-year-old worker cleaning a Higbee pig barn with a pressure washer. In Wichita, Kansas, ...

News Release: PLEASANT PRAIRIE, WI – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Gilbane Building Co. are partnering with safety advocates and labor unions to protect the safety and health of workers during construction of a new Pleasant Prairie manufacturing facility.

News Release: CHICAGO – A federal court in Chicago has ruled a Lincolnshire provider of employee benefit services must comply immediately with a U.S. Department of Labor administrative subpoena seeking documents for an Employee Benefits Security Administration investigation of unauthorized distributions from employee benefit accounts.

News Release: SIOUX FALLS, SD – Smithfield Packaged Meats Corp. – the country’s largest pork processor – has agreed to assemble a team of company and third-party experts to develop an infectious disease preparedness plan that the company will implement at all of its processing facilities nationwide.

News Release: BOSTON – The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has entered a consent judgment and order enjoining a Canton contractor and his business permanently from retaliating against workers who cooperate with U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigations and otherwise exercise ...

News Release: FORT MYERS, FL – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has signed a strategic partnership with Manhattan Construction Florida Inc. to promote worker safety and health at the Southwest Florida International Airport expansion project in Fort Myers. The University of South Florida On-site Safety and Health Consultation Program is also a partner in the effort.

News Release: HONOLULU – The owner of a Honolulu restaurant made earning a living difficult for its employees by allowing a manager to illegally keep a portion of workers’ tips and denying overtime pay to salaried cooks who worked an average of 55 hours a week, a recent federal investigation has found.

News Release: HAMMOND, LA – A Hammond security solutions company illegally denied 23 field operations managers in Louisiana their federal overtime protections. The employees, labeled executives and paid on a salary basis, worked about 60 hours a week, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation has found.