Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the weeks between Friday, August 23, and Friday, August 30
Texas Thieves
Bartenders at two Dallas-area restaurants who depend on good tips in return for great service will recoup $197,902 in earnings after federal investigators found the establishments’ owner and operator forced them to share tips with non-tipped employees illegally.
The recovery follows an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division that discovered The Peak Inn LLC and Adair’s Saloon Inc. operated an illegal tip pool when the employers shared tips earned by 20 bartenders with the restaurants’ cooks.
The division found the employer violated federal minimum wage and overtime provisions by not paying cooks at least the federally required $7.25 per hour for all hours worked and not paying them time-and-one-half their regular rate of pay for hours over 40 per workweek. Investigators also determined the employer did not combine an employee’s work hours when they worked as a bartender and a cook and when an employee worked at both restaurants. In addition, The Peak Inn and Adair’s Saloon failed to keep records required by law.
The investigations are part of an ongoing food service industry initiative to identify wage violators, recover back wages and, when appropriate, assess damages and civil money penalties.
In fiscal year 2023, the Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $29.6 million in back wages for nearly 26,000 food service workers and assessed food service employers $6.1 million in penalties.
Florida Discriminators
Asphalt Paving Systems, Inc. (APS), an asphalt paving company with offices in Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Tennessee, agreed to pay $1.25 million and furnish comprehensive injunctive relief to settle a race discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, APS subjected 12 Black former employees and a class of other Black employees, to frequent, severe harassment because of their race. Black employees were subjected to degrading and humiliating conditions such as being required to work in pouring rain while white workers watched, and being forced to relieve themselves outdoors while white employees were taken to indoor restrooms. Black employees were also often called racial slurs and epithets, including the “n-word,” “monkey” and “boy.”
The EEOC further alleged that the hostile work environment was exacerbated by physically threatening conduct, such as managers and supervisors bringing guns to worksites and—in one instance—reaching for a gun. Leadership at APS’s Tampa location witnessed and received complaints about the employees’ racist treatment, but APS took no action to correct it.
The three-year decree resolving the EEOC’s lawsuit requires APS to pay $1.25 million in monetary relief, and provide specialized training on race discrimination to human resources officers and managers to ensure that they are aware of their obligations to prevent workplace discrimination and how to address complaints. The decree also requires APS to appoint an outside monitor to review complaints of race-based harassment and provide EEOC with reports of harassment complaints which also describe its actions taken in response to the complaints.
Miner Dangers
The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that its Mine Safety and Health Administration completed impact inspections at 16 mines in 10 states in July 2024, issuing 239 violations and one safeguard.
The agency began conducting impact inspections after an April 2010 explosion in West Virginia at the Upper Big Branch Mine killed 29 miners.
MSHA’s impact inspections since 2023 have identified 4,314 violations, including 1,189 significant and substantial and 82 unwarrantable failure findings. An S&S violation is one that could contribute in a significant and substantial way to the cause and effect of a safety or health hazard. Violations designated as unwarrantable failures occur when an inspector finds aggravated conduct that constitutes more than ordinary negligence.
The agency conducts impact inspections at mines that merit increased agency attention and enforcement due to poor compliance history; previous accidents, injuries, and illnesses; and other compliance concerns. Of the 239 violations in July 2024, MSHA evaluated 70 as S&S and 11 had unwarrantable failure findings. The agency completed these inspections at mines in Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
“July impact inspections resulted in a troubling number of unwarrantable failure findings, representing serious safety and health hazards that operators knew put miners at risk and should have corrected,” said Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health Chris Williamson. “Impact inspections remain an important tool to hold operators accountable and eliminate hazards such as combustible materials near belts, hazards that history shows can unfortunately cause mine fires and lost lives.”
Belcher Branch: Operated by Frontier Coal Co. in Wyoming County, West Virginia, this coal mine was also selected for an impact inspection due to its enforcement history. Between July 1, 2023, to June 3, 2024, MSHA issued 334 violations at this mine, including 13 unwarrantable failure orders. In July 2024, inspectors cited 20 violations of mandatory safety and health standards, including 11 evaluated as S&S and eight unwarrantable failure findings. Specifically, inspectors found the following conditions:
- MSHA issued an imminent danger order the first day of its impact inspection after finding an extremely hot and smoking tail pulley bearing on a belt conveyor. To protect miners from the imminent fire and explosion hazard, miners were immediately removed from the mine. Inspectors found other conveyor bearings also overheating in the mine, leading them to issue unwarrantable failure orders due to the operator’s aggravated conduct.
- Mine management failed to ensure that fire warning systems operated properly along the belt conveyors exposing miners to fire and explosion hazards.
- Many of the violations identified in the impact inspection were associated with conditions caused by the mine operator’s failure to comply with MSHA requirements to conduct adequate examinations. MSHA remains vigilant in ensuring operators adequately recognize and correct hazards, and record corrective actions, especially where a reasonable likelihood of injury exists.
- MSHA inspectors also cited violations after finding the mine operator failed to comply with its approved ventilation plan, permitted unsupported roof and ribs, failed to repair automatic fire sensors and did not properly maintain several belt conveyors to ensure safe operating condition. For example, inspectors observed belt air traveling toward the working section and accumulations of combustible material near ignition sources along the belt entries. These conditions exposed miners to hazards related to fire, explosion, smoke inhalation, carbon monoxide poisoning, and falls from roof and ribs.
Dishonorable Mentions
- A USDOL Wage and Hour Division investigation found construction subcontractor UMS Heavy Equipment Rental Inc. in violation of federal contract labor laws while under a multi-million federal service contract for management and disposal of debris resulting from Typhoon Mawar on Guam in May 2023. Investigators determined the employer violated federal labor laws by failing to pay 55 employees $80,346 in minimum and prevailing wages, fringe benefits and overtime.
- The USDOL is trying to connect 28 former employees of a Cordele home healthcare company – Adventist Homecare and Medical Services LLC – with their share of $65,944 in back wages and liquidated damages recovered after an investigation found the employer denied them overtime wages they earned.
- Investigators with the USDOL’s Wage and Hour Division recovered a total of $61,646 for 140 workers and assessed the operators of Ohana’s Japanese Steak Restaurant in Lamesa, and at The Catch and Johnny Fab’s Cadillac Grill in Lubbock a total of $7,200 in penalties.
- J.A. Croson, a Sorrento, Florida-based plumbing and HVAC contractor, agreed to pay $1.6 million and to provide other equitable relief to settle a race and national origin harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of 17 former Black and Hispanic J.A. Croson employees, the federal agency announced today.