Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) filed a lawsuit accusing officers who oversee benefit trust funds for cement workers of firing an employee because she cooperated with a criminal investigation of a local union leader. That’s illegal.

The lawsuit seeks to have Cheryle Robbins, the former audit and collections director for the funds, reinstated, with back pay and interest. The feds also asked the court to relieve several trust board members of their jobs, including Scott Brain, the head of the cement masons union.

“Workers must be free to participate in Department of Labor inquiries without fear of retaliation,” Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi said in a statement. “By law, they have a right to report suspected violations to the department and must be allowed to cooperate with investigators.”

DOL investigators had documents showing that the union head had supported efforts to place Robbins on leave in 2011 after she had raised concerns about millions of dollars in missing employer contributions to the trusts. The funds subsidize union members’ health care, retirement and other benefits.

Brain also has been investigated for allegations that he permitted employers to skip their payments to the funds, spent dues money on an extramarital affair and retaliated against whistle-blowers.

The union, in Southern California, has about 1,700 members.

Read the whole story on LATimes.com.