Boss Watch

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the weeks between Friday, January 28 and Friday, February 5 —FLORIDA THIEVES— The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $901,625 in back wages and liquidated damages for 75 workers of a Florida grocery store enterprise after finding their employer wrongly exempted them from eligibility for overtime pay. The department’s Wage…

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the weeks between Friday, January 5 and Friday, January 19 —MISSISSIPPI KILLERS— For the second time in just over two years, a poultry processing plant in Hattiesburg has disregarded safety standards that have led to a worker’s death, this time a 16-year-old sanitation worker who was pulled into a…

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the week ending on Friday, December 15 —GEORGIA KILLERS— The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board completed their investigation into the 2021 deaths of 6 Gainesville poultry plant workers by liquid nitrogen, saying the deaths were “completely preventable.” Friend of the show Luis Feliz Leon wrote about this…

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the week ending on Friday, December 1 — FLORIDA ENDANGERERS — A federal workplace safety investigation found a South Bay correctional and rehabilitation facility failed to follow recognized safety practices, leaving employees vulnerable to violent attacks and injuries, including one worker who a patient reportedly struck in the face…

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the week ending on Friday, November 25 Papa John’s Pizza will pay $175,000 and provide other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced last week. According to the EEOC’s suit, in early 2020, Michael Barnes applied…

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the week ending on Friday, November 17 Federal investigators have recovered $532,842 in back wages and liquidated damages from a Montgomery home healthcare business that misclassified 67 employees as independent contractors, and incurred overtime wage violations as a result. U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigators found…

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the week ending on Friday, November 10 The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $11.4 million in back wages and liquidated damages for more than 1,000 employees of an East Coast restaurant chain after a series of investigations and litigation by the department.  The recovery is related to a…

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the week ending on Friday, November 3 The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found Allandale Lawn & Landscape Inc., violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay 35 workers time and one-half the regular rate of pay for hours over 40 in a workweek.…

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the week ending on Friday, October 27 Less than six months after an investigation found three Kentucky fast-food franchisees employing more than 300 children outside of federally allowed hours, the U.S. Department of Labor has discovered another Louisville restaurant enterprise violating federal child labor laws, this time with 55…

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the week ending on Friday, October 20 The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a federal consent judgment that requires the operator of a Hebron, Kentucky warehouse and distribution center to stop employing children illegally and to not violate federal child labor laws in the future. The action addressed…

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the week ending on Friday, October 13 Three federal workplace safety and health investigations that followed the April 2023 death of a worker at a Tulsa manufacturing facility found the company exposed employees to struck-by hazards and identified 36 violations, including 25 serious safety violations of U.S. Department of…

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the week ending on Friday, October 6 A 29-year-old employee of a Florida marine construction company drowned in five feet of water after being pinned under a fallen crane in March 2023. Federal workplace safety investigators determined the company could have prevented the fatality by following required safety standards.…