The Department of Labor (DoL) has recovered $1m in back wages from a federal contractor in South Carolina.
The company, based in Goose Creek has been found to have violated the terms of the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act. In total, the DoL reclaimed $1,091,515 in back wages for 43 employees.
Federal contractor to pay $1m in back wages
The investigation was carried out by the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor. They found that federal contractor KBRwyle Technology Solutions LLC was in breach.
Honeywell Technology Solutions was a supplier of logistical support for the U.S. Army. KBRwyle acquired Honeywell to snap up the work and made a costly error in breaching the clear standards the act sets out.
The government work regulator found that KBRwyle acquired Honeywell Technology Solutions Inc. and changed the names of the roles that carried out the work for their federal contracts as quality control inspectors.
Formerly known as technical instructors, their role was changed to supply technicians. The company also hit their paychecks by lowering the amount they were paid for the same tasks. This gained the ire of the Wage and hour division, as it breaches the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act.
“Contractors must follow requirements specified for work performed under federal contracts to make certain they pay employees the correct wages for the type of work they do,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Jamie Benefiel in Columbia, South Carolina.
Further to this KBRwyle dropped the overtime rate for workers as well, which, according to the DoL is a “violation of the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act.”
Benefiel concluded, “Workers on federal contracts perform critical work for our country. We enforce prevailing wage laws to ensure that the workers who help our country run receive their full, hard-earned wages.”
Image: Pixlr.
