Latest in Department of Labor

The U.S. Treasury Department has denied a request by the American Federation of Musicians and Employers' Pension Fund to reduce benefits for its participants in order to keep the "critical and declining" Fund from becoming insolvent within the next 20 years. Trustees of the Fund say they now will take another shot at…

The U.S. Department of Labor says it will decide by January 10 whether to file suit against SAG-AFTRA for alleged labor law violations in connection with the union's recent elections. The DOL has received eight such complaints – many of which were brought by supporters of losing presidential candidate Matthew Modine…

EXCLUSIVE: Investigators at the U.S. Department of Labor are looking into a range of allegations of wrongdoing during and after the recent SAG-AFTRA elections. Brian Hamilton, a member of the union's Los Angeles local's board of directors, spent 2½ hours with DOL investigator Troy Krouse earlier this week detailing…

IATSE has an embezzlement problem. In the past two years, former officers of IATSE locals in Alabama, Alaska, Virginia and Michigan have either been indicted, pleaded guilty or been sentenced for stealing funds from their local unions. Over the past decade, former treasurers, presidents and bookkeepers of IATSE locals…

It's politics as usual at SAG-AFTRA in the wake of the union's recent election, with several top vote-getters stepping down from their national and local board seats and handing them over to members of their own political faction. What's not usual, however, is that this year a complaint has been filed alleging…

EXCLUSIVE: IATSE Cinematographers Guild Local 600 says it has found more evidence of malfeasance by its former secretary-treasurer Alan Gitlin, accusing him of misappropriating some $26,000 worth of hotel rewards points that rightfully belonged to the union. This comes on top of the $3,301 in credit card points and…

UPDATED with SAG-AFTRA statement, 5:14 PM: A U.S. Department of Labor document obtained by SAG-AFTRA presidential candidate Peter Antico is raising new questions about the Screen Actors Guild's decision to secretly raise the dues of 771 high-earning actors back in 2011. The secret dues hike, which reportedly raised…

EXCLUSIVE: Recently concluded investigations by the U.S. Department of Labor into the SAG Pension and Health Plans have concluded that the plans' trustees "appeared" to have breached their fiduciary obligations by charging $756,027 in "unreasonable" fees and expenses to the Plans in violation of the Employee…

Film Allman, LLC just lost another appeal in an effort to wipe away the “willful safety violation” and fine imposed by the Occupational Health and Safety Commission over the production company’s actions on the set of Midnight Rider, which led to the death of 27 year-old Sarah Jones and the serious injury of several…

Disney has agreed to pay $3.8 million in back wages to thousands of Florida employees after the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division found that the company did not compensate them for duties before and after shifts. In addition officials found that Disney had inappropriately deducted a uniform or "costume"…

The U.S. Department of Labor has found that more than $750,000 was misappropriated from the SAG Pension & Health Plans, according to guild sources familiar with the probe. The money has been repaid by the Plans' insurer, and the DoL's investigation was closed last month. Guild sources say that the misuse of the Plans'…

EXCLUSIVE: New, un-redacted information revealing what specific supervising crew members did (or did not do) on the set of Midnight Rider has been put into a Department of Labor court filing to refute producer Film Allman’s claim that it was not guilty of a “willful safety violation.” The brief asks the 11th Circuit…