Boston — The U.S. Department of Labor has filed complaints in U.S. district courts against three New England mining companies, including one in Jewett City, in an effort to collect $267,724 in unpaid civil penalties resulting from federal mine safety violations.

The complaints, filed on behalf of the department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration, also seek injunctions and cash performance bonds from each mine operator to guarantee that future penalties will be paid.

A complaint filed in Connecticut seeks to collect $24,628 in unpaid civil penalties, plus interest, assessed against American Industries Inc., a Jewett City construction sand and gravel operation.

The other complaints were filed against a Waltham, Mass., crushed-stone operation facing $144,847 in unpaid civil penalties and a Raymond, N.H., sand-and-gravel company assessed $98,249 in unpaid civil penalties.

“Over a period of several years, these employers either reneged on promises to pay these penalties or they failed to contest them and then chose to ignore them,” Michael Felsen, the department’s regional solicitor of labor for New England, said. “Mine operators cannot be permitted to violate mine safety laws and simply refuse to pay the penalties assessed for those violations.”