Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Security Consultants Group Inc. (SCG), a security guard company with offices in Lincoln, R.I., and based in Tennessee, has paid 69 employees a total of $110,754 in back wages following an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division into alleged violations of federal wage and hour laws.

The company provides guard and security services to several federal facilities in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. An investigation by the Wage and Hour Division office in Rhode Island determined that employees working as security guards were covered by the federal Service Contract Act, the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act (CWHSSA) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The investigation found that SCG failed to pay employees for the time they spent arming and disarming themselves as well as the time they spent traveling to their guard posts from central locations. The company also failed to pay overtime to guard supervisors who were not paid a guaranteed salary and, therefore, were entitled to overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek.

“The company cooperated fully in our investigation and agreed to future compliance and the payment of the back wages in full,” said Dianne Miller, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s district office in Hartford, which covers Rhode Island and Connecticut. “However, this case should remind federal contractors to pay careful attention to the requirements of federal wage and hour laws to which they are subject.”

The FLSA requires employees to be paid the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and time-and-one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked over 40 per week. Under the Service Contract Act, contractors on federal contracts over $2,500 must pay their service employees no less than the wage rates and fringe benefits prevailing in the locality. The CWHSSA requires that federal contractors pay their employees time and one-half the basic rate of pay for hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a workweek.

For more information about the requirements of these laws, call the Department of Labor’s toll-free help line at 1(866) 4US-WAGE (487-9243), the Wage and Hour Division area office in Providence at (401) 528-4431, or the district office in Hartford at (860) 240-4160. Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

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