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US Department of Labor recovers more than $947k from Oregon federal contractors who denied full wages, benefits to 213 construction workers

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Wage and Hour Division

September 21, 2023

The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $947,547 from four Oregon contractors who failed to pay fringe benefits, prevailing and overtime wages to 213 employees working on federally funded construction projects in Oregon and Washington.

The recovery follows several investigations by the department’s Wage and Hour Division and the discovery of violations of the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Specifically, federal investigators found the following:

G Builders LLC, a Damascus wood framing company, classified employees incorrectly and failed to pay them the appropriate prevailing wages and fringe benefits for the type of work they did while building affordable housing units at U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-funded projects in Gresham and Eugene, and in Vancouver, Washington.
Joshua Legacy Painting and Restoration LLC, a Hillsboro construction contractor, did not pay workers the correct prevailing wages, fringe benefits and overtime while building affordable housing for farmworkers at the federally funded Colonia Paz complex in Lebanon.

Emagineered Solutions Inc., a Redmond heavy construction contractor and equipment manufacturer, incorrectly classified workers for the type of work they did and failed to pay them proper prevailing wages and overtime while working on a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-funded project at the John Day Lock and Dam in the Columbia River near Rufus.
Reyes Construction LLC, a Bend roofing services contractor, failed to pay employees corresponding prevailing wages and fringe benefits while working on a residential construction project in Ontario with funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In total, the division’s investigations helped 213 workers recover $846,440 in prevailing wages and fringe benefits, and $101,106 in overtime wages. The department also assessed G Builders $10,000 in penalties because the company violated similar federal labor laws in 2016 and 2021.

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Department of Labor to hold online seminars to educate current, prospective federal contractors on prevailing wage requirements

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Edwin Nieves
June 14, 2023

The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that its Wage and Hour Division will offer online seminars for contracting agencies, contractors, unions, workers and other stakeholders on the requirements for paying prevailing wages on federally funded construction and service contracts.

Part of the division’s effort to increase awareness and improve compliance, the seminars will include recorded training videos on a variety of Davis-Bacon Act and Service Contract Act topics that participants can view on-demand. The division will then offer live Q&A sessions to provide additional information.

Q&A sessions on compliance issues will be offered as follows:

Davis-Bacon Act: June 27 and Sept. 13.
Service Contract Act: June 28 and Sept. 14.

“Prevailing wage laws are key to ensuring that construction and service jobs are good jobs and that workers on federally funded projects across the country are paid fair wages and benefits,” said Principal Deputy Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman. “Recent investments in our nation’s infrastructure offer us a great opportunity to educate employers so they can compete for new federal contract opportunities and put skilled employees to work in their communities.”

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Federal Court Upholds Federal Contractor Minimum Wage Increase

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

JD Supra – Jan. 18, 2023

On Jan. 6, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona upheld President Joe Biden’s authority to issue an Executive Order (EO) increasing the minimum wage for federal contractors and subcontractors to $15 per hour.

As McGuireWoods previously reported, on April 27, 2021, President Biden signed an (EO) requiring federal contractors performing service, construction or concession contracts to pay a $15 minimum hourly wage to employees working on such contracts. Subsequently, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a Final Rule implementing the EO.

The EO invited litigation, and on Jan. 6, 2023, an Arizona federal court ruled in favor of the Biden Administration, dismissing a challenge brought by attorneys general for Arizona and four other states. The states argued that the EO and Final Rule violated the Federal Property and Administrative Service Act (FPASA), the Administrative Procedures Act and the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution, among other things. In response, the federal government argued the EO and Final Rule were “unremarkable,” noting that the past three presidents had altered the minimum wage for federal contractors pursuant to the FPASA.

The court found the wage increase had a sufficiently close nexus to the FPASA’s purposes of promoting economy and efficiency in federal contracting. In so holding, the court credited the President’s rational determination that improvements to productivity and quality of work from a wage increase would outweigh any cost increases in federal procurement.

The court further found the application of the wage increase to subcontractors was valid, and noted their inclusion was necessary to close potential loopholes.

The administration continues to defend the wage increase in other venues, including in a similar suit in Texas, and a narrower challenge in Colorado to its application to recreational contractors on public lands. In the Colorado case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit preliminarily blocked the hike on recreational contractors pending substantive review. However, the wage increase otherwise has gone into effect for government contractors and subcontractors, so any bids for government contracts should take it into account.

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The Deadline is Here for Federal Contractors to Start Paying at least $15 an Hour

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

January 31, 2022
Courtney Buble

This comes as a “record number” of states and localities are increasing their minimum wages in 2022.

President Biden’s $15 hourly minimum wage for employees of federal contractors officially took effect on Sunday.

Biden announced this initiative shortly after taking office in January 2021, then followed up with an executive order in April. The final regulation, which was issued in November, will be indexed for inflation. It also eliminates the tipped minimum wage for federal contractors by 2024, ensures workers with disabilities don’t earn a sub-minimum wage and protects outfitters and guides working on federal lands, reversing a policy from the Trump administration.

“The $15 minimum wage required by Executive Order 14026 applies only to contracts entered into, renewed or extended (pursuant to an exercised option or otherwise) on or after Jan. 30, 2022,” Labor Department spokesperson Edwin Nieves told Government Executive on Thursday. “Despite recent litigation, the DOL is proceeding with the implementation of [the executive order].”

Government Executive reported on one legal challenge in December. The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado denied the plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction on the rule on Jan. 24 and they appealed that decision last Wednesday.

“Contracting agencies will need to take appropriate implementing steps to ensure that covered contracts comply with the executive order’s requirements by, for example, incorporating the relevant contract clause into covered contracts,” Nieves continued.

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Executive Order on Improving Federal Contractor Operations by Revoking Executive Order 13495

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AlasBy the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act, 40 U.S.C. 101 et seq., and in order to promote economy and efficiency in Federal Government procurement, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Revocation of Prior Order. Executive Order 13495 of January 30, 2009 (Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Service Contracts), which requires that successor Federal contractors in certain circumstances offer a right of first refusal of employment to employees employed under the predecessor contract, is hereby revoked.

Sec. 2. Agency Implementation. The Secretary of Labor (Secretary), the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, and heads of executive departments and agencies shall, consistent with law, promptly move to rescind any orders, rules, regulations, guidelines, programs, or policies implementing or enforcing Executive Order 13495.

Sec. 3. Enforcement. The Secretary shall terminate, effective immediately, any investigations or compliance actions based on Executive Order 13495.

Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,
October 31, 2019.

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Contractor ordered to pay $100K in back wages for Hammond project (IN)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Karen Caffarini – Post-Tribune
September 19, 2017, 8:55 pm

Back wages totaling $103,788 have been paid to 29 individuals who were underpaid while working on the Flagstone Village affordable housing project in Hammond, according to a federal agency.

Because the Flagstone Village was a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development project, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division said the prime contractor for the job, CRG Residential of Carmel, needed to incorporate the required Davis-Bacon and Related Acts and Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act stipulations into its subcontractors’s contracts.

According to a Department of Labor spokesman, Scott Allen, CRG was responsible for all violations and back wages owed because the subcontracts did not include these contract stipulations. Allen said subcontractors were not responsible for any wage violations on their part.

“Federal contractors owe it to taxpayers to comply with all applicable laws, including paying their workers fairly and fully,” said Wage and Hour District director Patricia Lewis, in Indianapolis. “Prevailing wage laws level the playing field for all contractors.”

Among those receiving additional compensation was a heavy equipment operator working for subcontractor Hubinger Landscaping in Crown Point, who was reportedly classified improperly, and thus paid at a lower rate than required, according to the Department of Labor.

The Wage and Hour Division also determined that CRG Residential failed to pay one employee for time spent transporting other workers to the job site at the start of the week and home from the job site at the end of the week. The company also classified the worker improperly and paid him a lower rate than required for his job classification when he was operating heavy equipment, according to the division.

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Civil and Human Rights Coalition Applauds Implementation of Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order

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Contact: Scott Simpson
August 24, 2016

WASHINGTON – Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement on the U.S. Department of Labor’s release of regulations governing the implementation of the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, which ensures that federal contractors comply with workplace safety and fair pay laws:

“This is good news for working people and for the entire country. One in five Americans is employed by a federal contractor and this will help protect millions of workers from wage abuse, workplace discrimination, and unsafe working conditions. This measure is a major step forward in ensuring that federal contractors provide fair and safe conditions for their employees. And for businesses that play by the rules, there will be no burden from implementing these new regulations.

This is a commonsense step to protecting workers and boosting our economy. The Leadership Conference coalition of more than 200 national civil rights groups is proud to support it.”

Nancy Zirkin is executive vice president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference, visit www.civilrights.org.

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Paralyzed Veterans of America Applauds Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order

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Order strengthens discrimination prevention against veterans and people with disabilities

AUG 25, 2016, 17:47 ET
SOURCE Paralyzed Veterans of America

Paralyzed Veterans of America (Paralyzed Veterans) today applauded the Obama Administration for issuing final regulations and guidance implementing the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, originally signed by the President in July of 2014. The executive order and regulations are of particular importance to veterans and people with disabilities because they provide greater oversight of federal contractors, and hold them accountable for discrimination and civil rights violations.

“Every American should be protected against discrimination of any kind in the workplace, and Paralyzed Veterans of America commends President Obama for taking this action,” said Executive Director Sherman Gillums, Jr. “The American workforce is increasingly diverse. As a result, upholding an equal opportunity to work is vital. The executive order will help prevent discrimination against veterans and people with disabilities by requiring that violations of labor and employment rights laws-such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act-be among the considerations taken into account by the federal government in its contracting process.”

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NLRB Will Report Federal Contractors’ Labor Violations

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July 6, 2016
By Lawrence E. Dubé

July 5 – The National Labor Relations Board is preparing to report alleged labor law violations by government contractors named by regional directors in unfair labor practice complaints, the agency disclosed in a memorandum to its field offices.

Associate General Counsel Anne Purcell wrote July 1 in Memorandum OM 16-23 that the NLRB will ask charged employers to provide information that could identify them as federal contractors.

When an employer is named in an unfair labor practice complaint, the NLRB will report the information to a federal database to comply with the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order President Obama signed on July 31, 2014.

The executive order requires the NLRB and other agencies to assist contracting agencies and officials in assessing labor law violations by employers with government contracts valued at more than $500,000.

The NLRB won’t forward information to the database if an employer settles or resolves an unfair labor practice case before the issuance of a complaint.

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OFCCP Proposes Rule to Collect Summary Compensation Data from Contractors in New Equal Pay Report

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On August 6, 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking requiring covered federal contractors and subcontractors with more than 100 employees to submit an annual Equal Pay Report on employee compensation.  The rule will be published shortly in the Federal Register.

The data will enable OFCCP to direct its enforcement resources toward federal contractors whose summary data suggests potential pay violations, while reducing the likelihood of reviewing companies that are less likely to be out of compliance.  OFCCP will also release aggregate summary data on the race and gender pay gap by industry and EEO-1 category to enable contractors to review their pay data using the same metrics as OFCCP and take voluntary compliance measures.  By using existing reporting frameworks contractors already maintain in electronic payroll records, including W-2 earnings, and the longstanding categories and definitions that apply to the EEO-1 Report, the agency is avoiding costly new recordkeeping requirements and minimizing to the extent feasible the compliance burden on federal contractors and subcontractors.

The deadline for submitting comments will be 90 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.

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