DECATUR, AL – Federal workplace safety investigators found that a Decatur manufacturer of GE-brand appliances failed to follow required machine standards that could have prevented a 58-year-old front-line supervisor’s fatal injuries while trying to service a door molding machine.Inspectors with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened an investigation of the July 2024 incident at Haier US Appliance Solutions Inc. and found the company allowed workers to bypass the machine’s safety doors and did not use required procedures to prevent employee injuries in the carousel-like machine. “Haier US Appliance Solutions could have avoided this tragedy but put production schedules…
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On January 16 and 17, European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Síkela participated in the Angola-France Economic Forum held in Paris. The forum was an excellent opportunity for Commissioner Síkela to strengthen ties with Angola, a key player for the European Union from both an economic and geopolitical perspective, and to meet with the French private sector to discuss potential investment opportunities under the Global Gateway strategy in Angola. At the forum, Commissioner Síkela met with Angolan President João Lourenço to discuss how the EU and Angola can further build on a mutually beneficial partnership, reiterating EU support for economic diversification in…
Inspections found 32 significant and substantial violations, 2 unwarrantable failuresWASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that its Mine Safety and Health Administration completed impact inspections in December 2024 at 13 mines in Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia, and issued 119 violations. The agency conducts impact inspections at mines that merit increased agency attention and enforcement because of poor compliance history; previous accidents, injuries and illnesses; and other compliance concerns. The agency began conducting impact inspections after an April 2010 explosion in West Virginia at the Upper Big Branch Mine killed 29 miners. Of the 119…
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good morning, everyone. QUESTION: Good morning. SECRETARY BLINKEN: So we said we would run through the tape, and I think we’ve been going at a full sprint. This has been quite an eventful final week for this administration, making good on the President’s commitment to use every minute, every day, of every week that we had to get results. When I came down here on my first full day in office, back when I had a little bit less gray hair – as my daughter likes to point out – I spoke about how the work that…
Date of action: Dec. 12, 2024Type of action: Consent judgmentEmployers: MSES Consultants Inc., Lawrence RineAllegations: The U.S. Department of Labor filed suit against MSES Consultants Inc. and owner Lawrence Rine after the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration found fiduciary breaches related to the MSES Consultants Inc. Employee Health Plan. Investigators found the parties failed to pay more than $187,000 in adjudicated health claims, resulting in harm to the plan’s participants and beneficiaries, who were entitled to benefits under the plan as MSES employees. The engineering consulting company is now defunct.Resolution: The department negotiated and entered a consent judgment that provided…
Today, the United States is sanctioning nearly 250 enablers of Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine. As part of this action, the Department of State is designating more than 150 individuals and entities. Building on our January 10 targeting of Russia’s energy sector, today’s action aims to thwart sanctions evasion, particularly by actors based in the Peoples’s Republic of China (PRC), and to degrade Russia’s military industrial base. Additional designations target subsidiaries of State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom (Rosatom). Concurrently, the Department of the Treasury is re-designating nearly 100 previously sanctioned targets across Russia’s financial services, energy, and defense and related…
PHILADELPHIA ‒ The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into an agreement with Perdue Farms Inc. and secured a separate agreement with temporary staffing agency Staff Management Solutions LLC and SMX LLC, collectively referred to as “SMX,” to address child labor violations found in an investigation of Perdue’s poultry processing facility in Accomac, Virginia. Investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that, as far back as 2020, Perdue Farms contracted with SMX to staff production-level jobs, and that they jointly employed children in hazardous occupations at the Accomac facility to debone and process chicken and other products using equipment such…
Building on our January 10 sanctions targeting Russia’s energy sector, today the United States is designating over 250 enablers of Putin’s war against Ukraine. These sanctions will further constrain Russia’s ability to wage war and thwart sanctions evasion. Of these targets, the Department of State is sanctioning more than 150 individuals and entities involved in Russia’s defense industry and supporting its military industrial base. These designations encompass dozens of companies outside Russia that facilitate Russia’s evasion of our sanctions, particularly in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which remains the largest supplier of critical defense-related goods to Russia. Additional designations target subsidiaries…
New policy offers option for handling small payments when the owner cannot be locatedWASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration today announced an enforcement relief policy to provide retirement plan fiduciaries with an option to help manage small benefit amounts owed to individuals who cannot be located.Under the policy, the department will not take action under the fiduciary duty provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act against fiduciaries who transfer entire benefit payments owed to missing participants of $1,000 or less to state unclaimed property funds, if certain conditions are met.“This policy gives fiduciaries an…
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan launched the U.S.-Armenia Strategic Partnership Commission on January 14, marking the latest milestone in our bilateral relationship. Strong partners make stable regional partners, and our bilateral cooperation reflects our shared commitment to a more resilient, peaceful, secure, and independent South Caucasus. To date, the United States has invested approximately $3.3 billion in Armenia to support democratic reforms, economic growth and resilience, and humanitarian assistance, including $340 million since 2021. Our partnership is based on our shared democratic values, and together, we are working to expand our economic, and security and defense…