March 31, 2023 — The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration Thursday announced it cited a Florida framing contractor over safety violations, marking the sixth time since 2021 that the company has faced similar allegations. OSHA said it proposed $82,500 in penalties against Fort Walton Beach, Florida-based Panhandle Guest Design Inc. after citing the company for two repeat violations for failing to ensure workers had adequate fall protections while performing roofing activities. Click to read more.

Florida authorities on Friday charged a man with unlicensed contracting, insurance fraud and failing to obtain workers’ compensation coverage on his workers, after he solicited Tampa-area homeowners for roof replacement work. John Sutton, doing business as Kaizen Construction Group, had salesmen go door to door in Pasco County in 2021 and 2022, instructing homeowners on what to say in filing an insurance claim, Florida’s chief financial officer said in a bulletin. Some of the homeowners agreed to sign “direct to pay” documents, essentially assigning benefits to the roofing company. Click to read more

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Federal investigators have found that two St. Petersburg restaurants withheld tips earned by bartenders and servers to pay for customers who skipped out on their bills, illegally charged employees for uniforms and denied some workers required minimum wage and full overtime pay. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division determined the commonly owned businesses – Red Mesa Inc., operating as Red Mesa Restaurant, and Veytia Ventures LLC, operating as Red Mesa Cantina – violated several provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The division recovered $190,730 in back wages and liquidated damages for 89 affected workers as a result of its investigation. Click to read more

Travis Slaughter had jail time hanging over him for more than a year unless he paid $2.2 million in fines to the federal government. Then his luck went downhill. Days before the Jacksonville building contractor’s scheduled hearing last week before a federal judge, a grand jury indicted Slaughter and his brother, Tripp, on new fraud and tax charges that could lead to prison and another $3 million in debt whether the fines are paid or not. The brothers, who were previously in business together as roofing contractors, were recently charged with dodging about $2.8 million in payroll taxes while hiring undocumented immigrants through a scam like one that netted prison time for a father-son pair of builders in January. Click to read more

The Florida Division of Workers’ Compensation has made a tweak to its proposed reimbursement manual for ambulatory surgical centers. The change, posted after a Jan. 12 hearing on the issue, would clarify the wording by removing the words “for which there is no dispute as to the medical necessity” in the second sentence of a section of the rule. The paragraph now reads: “When a carrier denies, disallows, or adjusts payment for ASC charges, in accordance with the time limitation and coding requirements established by statute and by rule, the carrier must remit a minimum partial payment of the ASC’s charges. Minimum partial payment means payment of all non-disputed charges. The payment must accompany the Explanation of Bill Review (EOBR).” Click to read more