Construction workers who work on federal projects are poised to receive better wages and worker protections under a Department of Labor rule touted by Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday.

When federal investigators responded to a report that a mold machine operator at an Ohio foundry suffered a right thumb amputation in February 2023, they learned the company allegedly took no corrective action despite knowing that an employee using the same machine avoided similar injury eight months earlier.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced May 31 that its Mine Safety and Health Administration completed impact inspections at 20 mines in 15 states in April 2023 and found 335 alleged violations.

A Columbus children’s hospital allegedly failed to protect employees — including nurses and mental health professionals — from patients whose bites, kicks, punches and other assaults caused serious injuries, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation has found.

In certain concentrations, flammable vapors can ignite, leading to powerful explosions and leaving workers seriously injured or worse. For workers manufacturing plastic resin, the high heat used in the production process increases the risks.

Unsafe conditions typically found by federal workplace safety inspectors at discount stores operated by Dollar General Corp. and Dolgencorp LLC nationwide were allegedly on display again during U.S. Department of Labor inspections at nine locations in Maine, North Dakota, Ohio and Wisconsin in late 2022.

Thirty-nine people died doing trench or excavation work in the U.S. in 2022 – four in Illinois and two others in Ohio. In fact, the number of worker fatalities more than doubled since 2021, continuing a troubling trend cited by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that found 166 workers died in trench cave-ins from 2011-2018, an average of 21 each year.

An Ohio lathe mill has paid an enhanced child labor enforcement penalty of $22,093 after federal investigators found the company employed a 15-year-old worker illegally in a hazardous occupation – the operation of a sawmill – which led the worker to suffer injury when he became entangled in the gears of a powered wood processing machine.

For the third time in five months, federal safety inspectors responded to a Portsmouth hardwood flooring mill to investigate reports of allegedly unsafe machinery, the Department of Labor announced this month.

The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a federal court order that recovers $19,934 in back wages and damages from an Ohio home healthcare and adult daycare service provider who allegedly denied seven employees overtime wages and failed to properly pay in-home workers when clients’ needs disrupted their sleep time.

While working the overnight sanitation shift at an Ohio food processing plant, a 29-year-old temporary worker – on the job just nine months – suffered critical injuries after falling into an industrial blender he was cleaning and became caught in the rotating paddle augers. The worker's injuries led to a leg amputation.