DOL bars subcontractor for failure to pay proper wages

The U.S. Department of Labor has debarred a Guam federal subcontractor from seeking federally funded contracts after the department’s Wage and Hour Division found the employer shortchanged 29 construction workers at Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz and gave investigators falsified records.

Division investigators determined Danes Construction Corp. “violated federal regulations governing the employment of workers on projects supported by federal funds,” according to an Oct. 12 release from U.S. DOL. The division found the employer paid ironworkers less than their required prevailing minimum wage rate of $14.84 per hour, failed to pay temporary, non-immigrant workers from the Philippines for all hours worked, did not record hours worked or wages paid correctly, paid workers straight-time rates for overtime hours over 40 in a workweek and willfully submitted false payroll records, knowing they masked their record keeping violations and failure to pay required wages.

Danes Construction violated the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act, and regulations of the H-2B temporary worker program, the release said. The investigation led to the recovery of $106,446 in unpaid wages, including $10,549 in damages, for the 29 affected workers who were building housing units at the base. 

A 2015 division investigation found Danes Construction violated federal regulations by paying employees straight-time rates for overtime hours worked. The division recovered $8,193 in back wages for 17 affected workers in that case, U.S. DOL said. 

U.S. DOL’s Wage and Hour Division investigators in September found Quick Service Foods Inc., which does business as Wendy’s in Guam and on Naval Base Guam, did not pay required health and welfare benefits to its service contract workers. 

That investigation recovered $37,529 in health and welfare benefits owed to 56 current and former employees by the employer, who violated federal contract labor regulations under the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act, U.S. DOL said. The workers were employed under a $2.6 million food service contract awarded by the U.S. Navy through its Exchange Service Command for a 10-year period. No fines were levied, according to U.S. DOL. mbj