HAVELOCK, NC – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $268,014 in back wages for 63 workers of a Reston, Virginia, technical and engineering contractor who denied them a portion of their wages and benefits while they worked on a Department of Defense project in Havelock.
A review of company pay records by investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division found Adams Communications and Engineering Technology Inc. paid some workers a rate lower than the prevailing wage rate – the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a specific job – and failed to pay nearly all employees who worked on the contract enough wages to cover the health benefits. The employer also failed to pay full overtime wages due to two workers by paying the wrong rate of pay to one hourly employee and by failing to pay another worker time-and-a-half their required rate for hours over 40 in a workweek.
The employer’s action violated several requirements of the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act, which governs pay practices of contractors and subcontractors working on federally funded contracts.
In addition, Adams Communications did not provide employees working on the contract paid sick leave as the Service Contract Act requires, and required them to take leave without pay or use vacation hours when they were sick. The employer’s records also failed to list fringe benefit payments, correct rates of pay and classifications for workers, a recordkeeping violation of the Fair Labor...
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