Boss Watch: 5/16 – 5/23

Jacob Morrison

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the weeks between Friday, May 16, and Friday, May 23

Kentucky Thieves

The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered more than $207,470 in back wages and damages for 157 workers after finding a Michigan-based electrical services contractor failed to pay proper overtime rates to workers at job sites in Arizona and Kentucky.

Investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that M.J. Electric LLC did not include non-discretionary bonuses in employees’ regular rate of pay when calculating overtime pay, a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The investigation initially revealed the overtime violation at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Paradise Simple Cycle Project in Drakesboro, Kentucky. The investigation was expanded after similar violations were found at an M.J. Electric project in Ehrenberg, Arizona.

In addition to collecting $207,470 in back wages and damages, the division assessed the company a $19,782 civil money penalty for a repeat FLSA violation. In 2018, the department investigated M.J. Electric and found the company violated federal law by not properly paying overtime on non-discretionary bonuses. 

“The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to holding employers accountable, especially when they deny employees their hard-earned wages,” said Wage and Hour Division Acting District Director Wildali De Jésus in Louisville, Kentucky. “We urge employers who are unsure of their obligations to contact us for assistance to avoid compliance issues.”

OSHA Changes

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced it has updated the inspection program that directs agency enforcement resources to establishments with the highest rates of injuries and illnesses based on injury and illness data submitted in accordance with OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements.

The Site-Specific Targeting program is OSHA’s primary planned inspection program for non-construction establishments with 20 or more employees. Using OSHA Form 300A data from calendar years 2021-2023, establishments may be selected for inspection based on:

  • High injury and illness rates from 2023 data.
  • Upwardly trending injury and illness rates based on 2021-2023 data at or above twice the 2022 private sector average.
  • Injury and illness rates markedly below industry averages.
  • Failure to submit an OSHA Form 300A in 2023.

The new directive replaces the previous SST program directive issued on February 7, 2023. OSHA also uses national and local emphasis programs to target high-risk industries and hazards. Learn more about these emphasis programs.
OSHA’s On-Site Consultation Program provides free, confidential occupational safety and health services to help small- and medium-sized businesses identify workplace hazards, comply with OSHA standards, and establish and improve safety and health programs. On-Site Consultation services are separate from enforcement and do not result in penalties or citations.

Alabama Discriminators

AL(dot)com’s Sarah Whites-Koditschek reports:

A former employee is suing the University of Alabama at Birmingham, alleging she experienced gender discrimination and was fired after she experienced a medical issue.

Mitzi Pitzing, a former program director, filed a federal lawsuit against UAB in October 2024, alleging she qualified for medical leave and protections under the Family and Medical Leave Act but was not allowed to use all of her benefits.

“Defendant’s intentional retaliation against Plaintiff for exercising her rights under the FMLA resulted in the termination of her employment,” the suit states.

Pitzing says she received positive work evaluations and was repeatedly promoted. She began working for the medical school in 2014 and had previously worked other roles across the University of Alabama System.

“Ms. Pitzing worked diligently through several personal medical crises, and put up with disparaging comments about her wife,” the suit said.

Her allegations against the school focus on her former boss, Dr. Jean Ann Larson, then an associate dean at the School of Medicine. She claimed that in 2019, she was asked to work from her hospital bed.

Pitzing also claimed she hurt her back at work in 2023 and was required to attend work events despite being told by a doctor to stay home. The suit claims she was fired later in 2023 as retaliation, an allegation the university denies.

You can read the full article here

Blasted, Crushed

So far under the Trump administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is not being as public with its investigations. Even so, workers are still dying on the job – typically 100 workers every week in the US. Even though OSHA is even more hamstrung than before, there is sometimes small news story whenever someone dies at work because it’s such a terrible thing to happen in a community. 

On the Confined Space Newsletter – set up by Jordan Barab, a former OSHA official – they compile as many news stories on worker deaths as he can find every week. In addition to this newsletter, they regularly host commentary and analysis pieces about labor and workplace safety. You can find it all at jordanbarab.com/confinedspace

This week, they found 18 stories, including 4 from the South. 

A few lowlights:

  • Bexar County, TX — A worker was killed in an explosion involving equipment and a fuel container, police said. The Bexar County Medical Examiner identified the victim as 39-year-old Andrew Libby, and the cause of death was announced as a blast injury to the head. SAPD says Libby was at a storage unit at a facility at Camp Stanley on Ralph Fair Road around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday.  Police said some type of fuel container exploded, killing Libby. He was reportedly doing welding work on the container, which workers thought was empty. No one else was hurt in the incident.
  • Birmingham, AL — A man contracted by Alabama Power died on Satruday while on duty. Jeffrey Scott Duffie, 57, of Daviston, was killed by a falling tree while making power line repairs just before 10:30 a.m. Duffie, an employee of Utility Line Construction Services, was pronounced dead on the scene in the 1900 block of 21st Avenue South. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service crews said Saturday that one other person was injured and taken to a local hospital. There is no word on the person’s condition.

You can read more here.

Union Busters

Brought to you by LaborLab: The nation’s leading watchdog standing with working families to stop employer coercion and intimidation. Visit www.laborlab.us for more info.

Here are the new filings from this week:

In addition, the following filings were amended:

  • Rachel Roderick amended her LM-20 for Labcorp/Georgia to add her compensation rate ($2,000/day) and remove the named union (previously listed UFCW – Atlanta)
    • Roderick is particularly interest–she is an avid Bernie Sanders supporter, to the point of having a class action lawsuit against the DNC for their partiality towards Clinton in the 2016 election

As a reminder, due to a lack of enforcement, some labor relations consultants may disregard the law and fail to report their activities to the U.S. Department of Labor. Therefore, it’s crucial for organizers and workers to report suspected “persuader” activity to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS).

It’s crucial for organizers and workers to report suspected “persuader” activity to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS). You can reach them via email at  OLMS-Public@dol.gov, by calling (202) 693-0123, or by contacting your nearest OLMS District Office.

For assistance, please contact LaborLab at contact@laborlab.us.