D.O.L. National and Regional News Releases

1. St. Louis contractor faces $258K in fines after exposing roofing workers to potentially deadly fall hazards 5 times in 7 weeks at Wentzville worksites

   ST. LOUIS – Federal workplace safety inspectors have cited a Missouri roofing contractor for 21 violations for illegally exposing roof workers — five times in seven weeks — at six Wentzville residential worksites to the dangers of fall hazards, the construction industry’s leading cause of serious injuries and death. The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened its investigations after observing 13 Construction & Pro Services LLC allowing its employees to work on roofs without required protection equipment at separate sites on Oct. 31, Nov. 2 and Dec. 14, 2023.Specifically, OSHA alleges the company allowed employees to work without protection at heights greater than six feet, did not have a competent person inspect and evaluate job site hazards daily and failed to train workers to recognize hazards or prevent falls. Inspectors also found 13 Construction and Pro Services permitted the unsafe use of ladders, did not ensure workers wore head protection, and did not require the use of eye and face protective equipment when using pneumatic nail guns. In all, OSHA cited the company for 26 violations – six willful and 20 serious – and assessed $258,063 in proposed penalties, continuing a history of similar workplace infractions that includes citations for 11 serious and two repeat violations since the company’s 2021 incorporation. The company as contested the current citations issued.  “Far too often, we find that after OSHA has opened an investigation at one worksite, the same contractor will do nothing to correct similar hazards at its other sites or bother to train and make sure its work crews follow federal safety procedures,” explained OSHA Area Director Bill McDonald in St. Louis. “Had 13 Construction & Pro Services been a responsible employer, they would immediately have reviewed their company’s safety and health procedures to make sure employees at all of its worksites were working safely.”In 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 1,069 construction workers died on the job. Of those deaths, 395 were related to falls from elevation. As part of a continuing effort to prevent fall-related fatalities in construction, the agency, industry and safety groups, and other worker advocates are encouraging construction employers and workers to join the 11th annual National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction, May 6-10, 2024. Partnering with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, National Occupational Research Agenda, Center for Construction Research and Training, American Society of Safety Professionals, National Safety Council, National Construction Safety Executives, OSHA Training Institute Education Centers, state consultation programs and OSHA-approved state plans, the agency invites employers and workers to learn how to conduct a safety stand-down and view a video on fall safety that includes a message from a former construction worker and fall survivor. OSHA’s stop falls website offers safety information and video presentations in English and Spanish to teach workers about fall hazards and proper safety procedures. The agency also offers compliance assistance resources on Protecting Roofing Workers and recommendations for developing a safety and health program. The company contested the citations and will appear before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.Learn more about OSHA. 

2. Department of Labor cites goods transport provider after truck strikes grain yard manager, weeks after federal inspectors warn of hazards 

   FREMONT, NE – Responding to an employer’s report that a worker needed hospitalization after being struck by a semi-tractor-trailer and suffering severe injuries at a Fremont grain yard, federal workplace safety inspectors identified 23 violations by the worker’s employer, including failing to protect workers from being struck by moving vehicles.The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration learned a yard manager employed by Rail Modal Group LLC was directing congested traffic in a storage yard when a passing truck hit her on Jan. 2, 2024. The manager was on the job less than six months at the time. The incident follows an OSHA investigation opened at the wholesale grain facility on Nov. 6, 2023, after the agency received allegations of unsafe working conditions, including exposure to struck-by vehicle hazards.Incidents involving transportation and material moving caused more workplace deaths in 2022 than any other hazard, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.After its investigation, OSHA cited Rail Modal Group for violating the agency’s general duty cause for exposing workers to struck-by hazards. In total, OSHA cited the company for 21 serious and two other-than-serious violations related to fall protection, permit-required confined spaces, machine guarding and powered industrial trucks. Inspectors also found the company did not meet OSHA’s grain-handling safety standards and failed to employ a hazardous communication program to train workers about hazardous material at the facility. OSHA assessed the company $261,375 in proposed penalties.“Being struck by moving vehicles is one of the most deadly and common hazards on job sites. Employers must conduct risk assessments, implement engineering controls and take all necessary precautions to protect workers from this danger,” explained OSHA Area Director Matt Thurlby in Omaha, Nebraska. “Employers who implement safety and health programs that address the hazards unique to their operations and train workers on how to avoid injuries can help prevent similar tragedies and ensure all workers go home safely at the end of their shifts.”OSHA provides information on grain hazards, confined space, fall protection and hazardous communication for use by employers to understand how to protect workers from potential safety and health hazards.Based in Latham, New York, Rail Modal Group provides supply-chain transportation solutions focused on protein and agricultural exports through key gateway ports. The company opened its first inland port terminal in Fremont, and later added facilities in Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas.The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.Learn more about OSHA. 

3. US Department of Labor finds Arkansas restaurants’ operator illegally fired worker who used federally protected medical leave

   Employer name:               Mi Casita Mexican Restaurant Inc., operating as El Lorito Investigation sites:         3105 S 70th St.                                                   Fort Smith, AR 72903                                     Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found the operator of nine Arkansas restaurants failed to reinstate an employee to the same or an equivalent position after they returned from family and medical leave. The employer later terminated the worker who refused to report to another restaurant location in another town miles away. The division determined the employer owed the former employee lost hourly wages and wages from tips for the more than five months they spent obtaining another job.Back wages recovered:  $11,706Civil money penalties: $204 in penalties for the violations                                        Quote: “An employer’s compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act is never optional. An employee eligible for this protected leave must be allowed to exercise their right to use it without fear of losing their job,” said Wage and Hour District Director Hanz Grünauer in Little Rock, Arkansas. “The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to ensuring that employees’ rights are protected and will use all available remedies when violations are found.”Lea en Español

4. Federal court orders United Employee Benefit Fund’s former attorney and law firm to pay $883K in restitution to the fund, $176K in penalties

   CHICAGO –The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a federal consent order and judgment requiring three service providers of the United Employee Benefit Fund a Chicago-based multiple employer welfare arrangement, to restore $883,333 to the fund and pay $176,666 in penalties for violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.On May 1, 2024, Judge Nancy L. Maldonado in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division issued the order and judgment that partially settles a lawsuit filed by the department. The lawsuit alleged that attorney L. Steven Platt, the law firm of Robbins, Salomon & Patt, Robbins DiMonte Ltd. and other individuals violated ERISA when they misused more than $2.8 million in fund assets and mismanaged the fund to near depletion. In February 2022, following an investigation by the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, the department filed a complaint alleging that the fund’s fiduciaries and Platt committed multiple ERISA violations from 2015-2018, including transferring more than $1.6 million in fund assets to pay personal expenses to third parties, paying $895,000 in unreasonable compensation to service providers, and making $265,000 in improper loans to related parties. The complaint also alleged violations by former fund trustees Gary Meyers and John Fernandez, former administrator David Fensler, and former trustee and service provider Herbert McDowell and his company, United Preferred Companies Ltd. The department’s litigation against these parties is ongoing. “This partial settlement agreement restores more than $880,000 to the United Employee Benefit Fund and is the latest step in the Department of Labor’s ongoing effort to hold the fund’s fiduciaries and others liable for their alleged misuse of more than $2.8 million in assets,” said Regional Solicitor Christine Heri in Chicago. “The department will take all necessary legal action to protect the assets of employee benefit plans and to hold fiduciaries responsible for failing to discharge their legal duties to protect these assets.” The UEBF previously provided death benefits to approximately 60 individual employer-sponsored benefit plans. Along with the restitution of losses and penalties, the order bars Platt — the fund’s former attorney — from serving as a fiduciary, trustee, administrator or service provider to any ERISA-covered plan in the future.In August 2023, the judge issued a preliminary injunction to protect the UEBF’s remaining assets and appointed an independent fiduciary, Receivership Management Inc., to oversee the fund and manage its remaining assets. On April 23, 2024, Receivership Management Inc. filed a proposed termination and plan of liquidation for the fund. “The alleged actions of the United Employee Benefit Fund fiduciaries violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and caused losses to the fund assets that may have affected its ability to pay benefits to the fund’s participants nationwide,” said Employee Benefits Security Administration Regional Director Ruben R. Chapa in Chicago. This is the second partial settlement in this matter. On Dec. 19, 2023, a federal consent order and judgment required David Schwalb, an attorney who knowingly participated in prohibited transactions, to restore $136,364 to the fund. Previously, Schwalb restored more than $1.4 million to the fund before the department’s litigation. Schwalb was also barred from future service as a fiduciary, trustee, administrator or service provider to the fund.Learn more about EBSA.

5. Department of Labor encourages construction industry employers, stakeholders to join 2024 National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls

   WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is encouraging construction industry employers and workers across the nation to take part in its 11th annual National Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction from May 6-10. The event focuses attention on preventing the industry’s leading cause of worker deaths.The national stand-down recommends employers and workers pause voluntarily during the workday for safety demonstrations, hazard recognition and fall prevention training, and “tool-box” talks about hazards, protective methods and their company’s safety policies, goals and expectations. This year, OSHA is partnering with Construction Safety Week, an organization of more than 70 national and global construction firms, to enlist employers in the U.S. to create the largest industry-wide construction stand-down ever held.Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker will observe the 2024 stand-down at an event on Washington’s National Mall on May 8. “In 2022, falls from elevation claimed the lives of 365 construction workers,” said Parker. “This real and persistent hazard requires OSHA to use all available tools, including working with construction employers on how to identify and better control fall-related hazards and embrace safety and health as a core value on their worksites.”OSHA developed the national safety stand-down as part of the fall prevention campaign and in partnership with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, National Occupational Research Agenda and The Center for Construction Research and Training. Since 2014, this effort has helped train more than 10 million workers on fall prevention.Learn more about OSHA and its national emphasis program to prevent workplace falls.