A janitorial company has paid $22,000 in back wages and damages to 26 employees who worked at Ralph Wilson Stadium after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found it didn’t pay them proper minimum wages or overtime compensation.

Knights Facilities Management, a Michigan-based company that provides grounds maintenance and janitorial services at the stadium, was cited for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage, overtime and record- keeping provisions.

More at source: Buffalo News

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a new web tool designed to provide Americans easy access to information about everyday products like home appliances, electronics and cleaning products that can save money, prevent pollution and protect people's health.

Using the tool, consumers and institutional purchasers can find electronics and appliances that have earned EPA's Energy Star label and can browse WaterSense products that help save energy and water.

More at source: Sustainable Business

NEW YORK undefined A janitor working at the U.S. Open is accused of stealing laptop computers from the New York City tennis tournament for two years in a row.

Prosecutors say Kenneth R. O'Quinn was arrested on charges including grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. The 45-year-old Queens man could spent 15 years in prison, if convicted. He was being held Saturday pending arraignment.

More at source: WSJ

A janitorial service company will pay a total of $180,000 to 20 Latino janitors working in San Francisco commercial buildings and upgrade its staff training to settle a discrimination lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday.

The commission accused ABM Industries in a 2009 lawsuit of singling out Latinos for harassment, moving them from their preferred jobs to less-desirable assignments with reduced seniority, and retaliating against them when they complained.

More at source: SFgate

AN industrial cleaning firm has been fined £35,000 and ordered to pay £120,000 in costs over the death of one of its workers who fell into a water-cooling tank at a power plant.

Michael Benn, 37, was part of a team of three from Epsco Ltd, working at Connah’s Quay power station on August 30, 2007, when the accident happened.

Mr Benn, from Fife, Scotland, was working as a team leader with Frazer Duff and Shane McNicoll using a hose and pump to clear away sludge and silt.

He feared the pump wasn’t working properly and went to investigate, but fell into a tank or sump and drowned in about two meters of water at the E.ON power station.

A police officer died as a result of inhaling fumes from an aerosol-sprayed cleaning substance at a Chicago police station where he worked, according to autopsy results cited late Tuesday by The Chicago Tribune.

Father-of-two Kevin Robinson told colleagues he began coughing and having breathing problems in March after the spray was squirted onto a desk near him by a maintenance worker at the Morgan Park district station.

He was later admitted to a hospital, released then readmitted when the condition worsened, with his lungs all but shutting down, the newspaper said. The 42-year-old was placed in a medically induced coma and died in early April.

Caddo Parish School Board wants kids to understand the importance of washing their hands and healthy hygiene habits.

That why Tim Graham, director of purchasing for the district, said the Clean Hands Campaign is such a great initiative.

The school assemblies, designed to teach kindergarten through third-graders about when and how often to wash their hands, is held at no charge through a partnership with Carefree Janitorial Supply and Symmetry, a division of Buckeye International.

More at source: Shevport Times

A rally was held outside City Hall Wednesday to urge the Department of Education to come clean about health risks in public schools.

Community leaders say PCB chemicals, which pose serious risk to brain development, are leaking in most public schools.

Elected officials said they are pushing a bill requiring the DOE to notify parents of any contamination and post the results on their website.

"We have a lawsuit against the city on this matter because they have proposed a 10-year timeline. That's a completely ridiculous period of time," said Miranda Massie of New York Lawyers For Public Interest. "This problem must be solved in a much shorter time frame."

More at source: NY1

The Evening News launched its Graffitibusters campaign in a bid to try to combat the growing number of illegal graffiti tags which are blighting this fine city.

The campaign, which is being supported by Norwich police, Central Norwich Citizens’ Forum, Norwich City Council and the Norwich City Centre Partnership, has urged people to donate money, paint or time to help keep the streets clean.

More at source: Evening News UK

Constable Vincent DeAngelis, recently returned socio-community officer at the station which serves Côte St. Luc, Hampstead and Montreal West, told The Suburban last week that a Greek woman had solicited her services for cleaning homes, and even said she had references.

More info at source: Canadian Suburban