The U.S. Division of Labor has recovered $101,690 in again wages and damages owed to 31 staff of a Houston plumbing contractor who paid them a wage however didn’t pay an overtime premium for hours over 40 in a workweek.

Investigators with the division’s Wage and Hour Division decided Amailey Plumbing LLC categorized service technicians and apprentice helpers as salaried staff and didn’t pay them the proper additional time price as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The division calculated that the contractor owed $50,845 in again additional time wages and an equal quantity in damages.

Based in 2008, Amailey Plumbing LLC presents plumbing companies within the Houston space for brand new dwelling development, routine system cleansing, upkeep, restore, and response for plumbing emergencies.

High photograph: Division of Labor Constructing, Washington, D.C. Photographer: Ezra Amacher, Insurance coverage Journal

Matters
Contractors

Proliferating battle zones are an rising burden on airline operations and profitability, executives say, as carriers grapple with missiles and drones, airspace closures, location spoofing and the shoot-down of one other passenger flight.

Airways are racking up prices and shedding market share from canceled flights and costly re-routings, usually at brief discover. The aviation business, which prides itself on its security efficiency, is investing extra in knowledge and safety planning.

“Flight planning in this sort of atmosphere is extraordinarily tough … The airline business thrives on predictability, and the absence of it will at all times drive better value,” stated Man Murray, who leads aviation safety at European provider TUI Airline.

With rising airspace closures round Russia and Ukraine, all through the Center East, between India and Pakistan and in elements of Africa, airways are left with fewer route choices.

“In comparison with 5 years in the past, greater than half of the international locations being overflown on a typical Europe-Asia flight would now should be rigorously reviewed earlier than every flight,” stated Mark Zee, founding father of OPSGROUP, a membership-based group that shares flight danger info.

The Israeli-Palestinian battle within the Center East since October 2023 led to business aviation sharing the skies with short-notice barrages of drones and missiles throughout main flight paths – a few of which had been reportedly shut sufficient to be seen by pilots and passengers.

Russian airports, together with in Moscow, at the moment are recurrently shut down for transient intervals on account of drone exercise, whereas interference with navigation programs, referred to as GPS spoofing or jamming, is surging round political fault traces worldwide.

When hostilities broke out between India and Pakistan final month, the neighbors blocked each other’s aircraft from their respective airspace.

“Airspace shouldn’t be used as a retaliatory device, however it’s,” Nick Careen, Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation (IATA) senior vp for operations, security and safety, advised reporters on the airline physique’s annual assembly in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Isidre Porqueras, chief working officer at Indian provider IndiGo, stated the current diversions had been undoing efforts to cut back emissions and improve airline efficiencies.

Worst-Case Situation

Funds apart, civil aviation’s worst-case situation is a airplane being hit, by chance or deliberately, by weaponry.

In December, an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 folks. The airplane was by chance shot down by Russian air defenses, in keeping with Azerbaijan’s president and Reuters sources.

In October, a cargo airplane was shot down in Sudan, killing 5 folks.

Six business plane have been shot down unintentionally, with three near-misses since 2001, in keeping with aviation danger consultancy Osprey Flight Options.

Governments must share info extra successfully to maintain civil aviation safe as battle zones proliferate, IATA Director Common Willie Walsh stated this week.

Security statistics utilized by the business aviation business present a gradual decline in accidents over the previous twenty years, however these don’t embrace security-related incidents equivalent to being hit by weaponry.

IATA stated in February that accidents and incidents associated to battle zones had been a prime concern for aviation security requiring pressing world coordination.

Robust Selections

Every airline decides the place to journey based mostly on a patchwork of presidency notices, safety advisers, and information-sharing between carriers and states, resulting in divergent insurance policies.

The closure of Russian airspace to most Western carriers for the reason that outbreak of battle in Ukraine in 2022 put them at a value drawback in comparison with airways from locations like China, India and the Center East that proceed to take shorter northern routes that want much less gas and fewer crew.

Shifting danger calculations imply Singapore Airways’ Flight SQ326 from Singapore to Amsterdam has used three totally different routes into Europe in simply over a yr, Flightradar24 monitoring knowledge reveals.

When reciprocal missile and drone assaults broke out between Iran and Israel in April 2024, it began crossing beforehand prevented Afghanistan as a substitute of Iran.

Final month, its route shifted once more to keep away from Pakistan’s airspace as battle escalated between India and Pakistan. Flight SQ326 now reaches Europe through the Persian Gulf and Iraq. Singapore Airways didn’t reply instantly to a request for remark.

Pilots and flight attendants are additionally apprehensive about how the patchwork of shifting danger would possibly influence their security.

“IATA says airways ought to determine if it’s secure to fly over battle zones, not regulators. However historical past reveals business pressures can cloud these selections,” stated Paul Reuter, vp of the European Cockpit Affiliation, which represents pilots.

Flight crew sometimes have the correct to refuse a visit on account of considerations about airspace, whether or not over climate or battle zones, IATA safety head Careen stated.

“Most airways, the truth is, I’d say the overwhelming majority of them, are not looking for crew on an plane in the event that they don’t really feel snug flying,” he stated.

Introducing LightDutyWorks, the turnkey return-to-work answer to assist brokers not simply diagnose mod issues, however repair them.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – June 11, 2025 — Emerge Apps introduced the launch of the Mod Efficiency Suite, a first-of-its-kind platform constructed to assist insurance coverage brokers elevate their work comp gross sales technique.

The Mod Efficiency Suite pairs Emerge Apps’ trusted ModSure evaluation software with the brand-new LightDutyWorks app, a turnkey return-to-work answer brokers may give employers to handle mod challenges. The package deal additionally contains technique and session from newly appointed Chief Expertise Mod Officer, Kevin Ring—a nationally acknowledged mod professional from the Institute of Work Comp Professionals (IWCP).

“Mod evaluation is only the start,” mentioned Kevin Ring. “We all know that how a declare is managed can dramatically impression the mod. With this suite, brokers go from merely figuring out points to providing a transparent answer that drives efficiency.”

The Subsequent Evolution in Work Comp

The Mod Efficiency Suite offers brokers a complete system designed to open doorways and shut offers:

• ModSure delivers easy, visible evaluation that exhibits employers the true greenback impression of their expertise mod
• LightDutyWorks equips employers with return-to-work instruments to regulate declare prices, together with insurance policies, kinds, supply letters, and a searchable job financial institution
• CXO Help from Kevin Ring helps brokers inform a compelling story, run impactful mod critiques, and construct belief shortly with prospects

This suite is good for brokers seeking to transfer past quoting and lead with technique. It offers producers at any expertise degree a sensible, confirmed system to distinguish and paint a imaginative and prescient of higher claims administration, decrease premiums, and long-term partnership.

“We’re rewriting the work comp playbook,” mentioned Dustin Boss, Founder and CEO of Emerge Apps. “With evaluation, motion, and professional assist in a single package deal, this suite offers brokers all the pieces they should drive outcomes—and gross sales.”

To be taught extra concerning the Mod Efficiency Suite, go to www.emergeapps.com.

About Emerge Apps
Emerge Apps builds trendy software program that helps impartial insurance coverage brokers stand out, lead with worth, and ship outcomes to shoppers. Championing a singular prevention-first strategy to insurance coverage gross sales and repair, Emerge Apps equips brokers to win in as we speak’s market.

In regards to the Institute of Work Comp Professionals (IWCP)
The IWCP gives work comp coaching, certifications, and experience, turning brokers into work comp and damage administration specialists who get actual outcomes for his or her shoppers.

Media Contact
Alicia Torres, Chief Advertising Officer, Emerge Apps
262-391-4767
[email protected]

Matters
Lawsuits
Workers’ Compensation