By Ryan Murphy
November 25, 2014, 9:43 PM | ISLE OF WIGHT
Isle of Wight County Schools will pay backpay for hundreds of workers on a school construction job in Windsor who were shorted after the school system failed to include federal wage requirements in contract documents.
The move comes seven months after a Daily Press investigation revealed that the school system had appeared to violate federal law by failing to include the pay rate clauses. The school system used $7.5 million in federally subsidized bonds for the job, which came with strings attached, including paying workers on a pay scale based on local prevailing wages.
The Labor Department opened an investigation into the issue in May. A department spokeswoman said Wednesday that the investigation was still open.
The Isle of Wight School Board approved an order at Monday’s work session to take steps to comply with the federal law, called the Davis-Bacon Act, and to compensate construction workers for the difference between what they were paid and what federal law said they should have been paid.