August 10, 2016
Labor Department Finds Senate Food Services Contractors Broke Law
Source: Government Executive, Charles S. Clark, July 27, 2015
Contractors hired by the Architect of the Capitol must award a total of $1 million in back pay to hundreds of cafeteria workers due to violations of the federal prevailing wage law, the Labor Department announced on Tuesday.
Restaurant Associates and its subcontractor Personnel Plus will pay 674 food servers and cooks a collective $1,008,302 because of improper job classifications that violated the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act, Labor’s Wage and Hour Division said. The companies paid the workers for lower-skilled jobs than they actually performed, forced them to report for work early and failed to pay overtime at proper rates, according to the decision.
In addition, the contractors failed to pay required health and welfare benefits and violated the McNamara-O’Hara Act’s recordkeeping requirements.
“Employers given the opportunity to earn a profit by providing a service to the government at a cost to the taxpayer have a legal obligation to follow the letter of the law, especially when it comes to paying their workers,” said Wage and Hour Division Administrator David Weil. “Workers in the restaurant industry are among the lowest-paid workers in our economy. Most struggle to afford life’s basic expenses and pay their bills; they shouldn’t have to deal with paychecks that don’t accurately reflect their hard work and the wages to which they are legally entitled.” READ MORE….
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