Matters Management

SALT LAKE CITY – A federal judge has upheld an assessment by the U.S. Department of Labor of $1,964,450 in civil money penalties against Paragon Contractors Corp. and its owner Brian Jessop.

The ruling by the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges is the latest action in long-standing litigation by the department’s Office of the Solicitor against the employers, prompted by their lengthy history of child labor violations. The judge also held Paragon’s successor in interest, Par 2 Contractors LLC, liable for the penalty amount.

In 2012, investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division found Paragon, Jessop, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and others had employed more than 200 children – including more than 100 under the age of 12 – to harvest pecans on a ranch in Utah during school hours, in violation of child labor provisions in the Fair Labor Standard Act. In past litigation, the department has successfully obtained contempt orders and back wages and other relief totaling more than $1 million.

California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, New York, Washington

New Mexico: Primary and secondary school personnel are required to receive training once a year.

ATLANTA – RSPS Holdings, a franchisee of the popular fast-casual barbeque restaurant, Shane's Rib Shack, violated federal law when it subjected a teenage female employee to a hostile work environment based on her sex, then fired her in retaliation for complaining about it, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

According to the EEOC's suit, the female employee — who was a college freshman at the time — was sexually harassed by an older male manager from September to December 2021. During that time, the manager made daily unwanted comments about the female employee's physical appearance and his romantic feelings for her; spread false sexual rumors about her; and cornered her in areas of the restaurant without cameras, demanding a hug or attention from her before allowing her to pass by. The female employee complained about the harassment to her supervisor on multiple occasions, but no effective remedial a