A Department of Labor report to lawmakers a day before Christmas stated that about 50 percent of small businesses in the CNMI have hired at least one U.S. citizen to comply with a requirement that started on Oct.
Eurofresh Inc. of Willcox, AZ, has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division to pay $937,460 in back wages and interest to 587 U.S. workers following an investigation into company practices related to hiring temporary, non-immigrant foreign agricultural workers.
The company is in bankruptcy, and the agreement includes $245,482 which is equal to five percent of the $4,909,644 unsecured back wages sought by the Labor Department.
However, the Labor Department's policy of enforcing labor laws without regard to immigration status long predates the Obama administration; moreover, the enforcement of labor laws is widely seen -- even by those who advocate for greater restrictions on immigration -- as a key to discouraging employers from hiring unauthorized workers.
The city has imposed a new work schedule on its paramedics after the U.S. Department of Labor concluded earlier this year that the way city paramedics were paid did not comply with federal labor law, city officials said this week.
Florida's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for March 2010 is 12.3 percent. This represents 1,138,000 jobless out of a labor force of 9,269,000. The unemployment rate is up marginally from the February revised rate of 12.2 percent, and up 2.7 percentage points from the March 2009 rate of 9.6 percent.
