1200px-DOL_WHD_logo.svg

US Department of Labor Obtains Court Order Preventing Federal Contractor from Retaliating Against, Intimidating Workers on Maryland Projects

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Agency: Wage and Hour Division
Date: August 23, 2022
Release Number: 22-1722-PHI

JAG Contractors Inc. attempted to obstruct federal wage investigation

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The U.S. Department of Labor obtained a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prohibit a federal contractor and its owners from retaliating against former and current employees who cooperate with an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division.

The division’s probe of the pay practices of JAG Contractors Inc. in Alexandria, and owner Jose Guzman began in February 2022. The company was contracted to build two federally funded projects in Maryland: the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research at Fort Detrick in Frederick, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services site in Windsor Mill.

Investigators determined the company and its owners failed to pay workers on the projects all wages as required for all hours worked in violation of the Davis-Bacon Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. They also learned that JAG either terminated or reassigned employees who complained to the employer’s management about their illegal pay practices or who cooperated with the investigation, from working on the company’s federal projects.

In addition, investigators discovered JAG attempted to obstruct the investigation by falsifying documents, making intimidating statements about workers’ immigration status, and directing employees not to report to work on the day investigators interviewed employees.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the department’s suit against JAG Contractors Inc. and its owner seeks an order that permanently prevents them from violating the FLSA’s anti-retaliation provisions or engaging in other activity protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

“Workers have the legal right to question their employer’s pay practices, submit a complaint and to take part in a federal investigation without fear of reprisal,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Alfonso J. Gristina in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. “When there are doubts about an employer’s compliance with federal wage and hour laws, we will intervene to ensure that employers respect their workers and their rights.”

(Read More)

Construction Unions Ally with Striking Teachers to Fight for Prevailing Wage Laws (NC)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY: MIKE ELK
MAY 15, 2018

As North Carolina teachers go out on strike tomorrow, they will be joined by the ranks of the state’s construction unions. Much like teachers, who lack the right to collective bargaining in the state, construction workers employed on North Carolina’s state-funded projects, such as schools, lack the ability to have their wages set by union-endorsed prevailing wage standards.

They say the lack of collective bargaining rights for public employees in North Carolina is symptomatic of how the state also undervalues all workers employed on projects financed on the public’s dime.

“When your public employees are organized, it sets the standard and foundation for everybody else,” says North Carolina IBEW Local 379 President Scott Thrower. “When they are not, the private sector is setting the ground.”

While construction workers in other states enjoy the benefits of prevailing wage standards, construction workers in North Carolina do not. Under prevailing wage standards, contractors are forced to pay the median wage that construction workers are paid in that region as determined by a government survey-the idea being that government-funded projects are supposed to keep wages from falling.

“Prevailing wage levels the playing field,” says Thrower.

Without a prevailing wage, contractors on state-funded projects can simply pay their workers whatever they want.

While unionized electrical contractors in the state, working on federally funded projects that use prevailing wage standards, make a minimum of $25 an hour with retirement and health care benefits, non-union electrical contractors work on state-funded projects that often pay as little as $15-$20 per hour due to the lack of prevailing wage standards on state-funded projects.

Worse, union leaders say the lack of prevailing wage standards negatively affects high road contractors, who use higher training and safety standards.

(Read More)