The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs today announced a $9 million competitive grant solicitation for one or more projects to reduce child labor in the artisanal mining sector of Colombia.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia has approved a consent judgment ordering the Putnam County Board of Education in Winfield to pay $50,000 in back wages to a former employee to resolve a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor alleging violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act. The judgment also orders the defendants to implement several specific measures to ensure future compliance with the FMLA.

Rigid Oil Field Services LLC has agreed to pay $51,839 in overtime back wages to 28 current and former employees following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, which found violations of the overtime and record-keeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The company misclassified its employees as independent contractors.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced that a miner fired from his job at a California rare earth minerals operation when he spoke out about unsafe working conditions has been temporarily reinstated. An administrative law judge with the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission issued a decision April 17 requiring the immediate reinstatement of the miner at the Mt. Pass Mine and Mill in Mountain Pass, Calif. Initially, the mine operator, C.R. Meyer and Sons Co., did not comply with the judge's order.

In the week ending May 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 360,000, an increase of 32,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 328,000. The 4-week moving average was 339,250, an increase of 1,250 from the previous week's revised average of 338,000.