$1.2 Million in Back Wages to be Paid by Federal Electrical Contractor for Violation of Wage and Hour Laws

 
Friday, April 3, 2015
 

A federal electrical contractor, Lighting Services Inc. will pay 38 electricians/technicians more than $1.2 million in back wages after U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division investigators determined the company did not pay required prevailing wages to workers at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay. The division also found the employer submitted falsified payrolls and told workers to provide false information to investigators. 

Lighting Services Inc. violated the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts and the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act and, as a result, the company and owner Scott Wilks are excluded from obtaining federal contracts for three years.

Investigators found that Lighting Services and Wilks committed multiple egregious violations, including:

  • Instructing employees to misrepresent to investigators the type of work that they did 
  • Requiring employees to falsify time records 
  • Failing to list numerous workers on certified payroll records 
  • Paying rates more than $20/hour below required wage rates 

The department's regional solicitor in San Francisco brought charges against the contractor, seeking payment of back wages and debarment from federal contracts. The department resolved the charges and obtained appropriate remedies through consent findings approved by an administrative law judge last month.

The DBRA requires that all contractors and subcontractors performing work on federal and certain federally funded construction projects pay their laborers and mechanics at least the prevailing wage rates associated with their occupations, as determined by the secretary of labor. The CWHSSA, which applies to federal service contracts and federally funded and assisted construction contracts exceeding $100,000, requires workers to be paid one and one-half times their basic rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

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