A company that has a federal service contract to clean up debris caused by Hurricane Katrina has paid $25,163 in back wages to 153 employees after the Department of Labor accused the company of failing to pay required fringe benefits.
Contract Labor Solutions has a federal contract to clean up debris at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport , Mississippi .
Wage and Hour investigators accused the company failing to pay employees the required fringe benefits and, on two occasions, failed to pay workers for holidays, as required by the Service Contract Act (SCA).
Under the SCA, contractors and subcontractors on federal service contracts over $2,500 must pay their service workers no less than the wages and fringe benefits prevailing in the locality. The Labor Department issues wage determinations that provide the required SCA wage rate and fringe benefits for each service occupation. These determinations are incorporated into covered federal contracts.
The department said that the company was cooperative during the investigation, agreed to comply in the future, and paid the back wages.
The investigation was one of several conducted under the department's Katrina-related initiative to ensure that workers involved in hurricane-related activities are properly compensated. Wage and Hour has dispatched additional investigators to the Gulf Coast region and created a Gulf Coast Task Force to provide increased enforcement support and boost compliance outreach activities.
