Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --

Following further investigation of clean-up work at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport, Miss., the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division has recovered an additional $36,235 in back wages for 45 employees of KTC Services.

“North Carolina-based KTC Services had contracted with several companies that had federal contracts under the Service Contract Act and the Contract Work Hours Safety Standards Act,” said Oliver Peebles, III, the Wage and Hour Division district director in the Gulf Coast.

Peebles explained that this investigation involved debris clean-up work at the Battalion Center from September 2005 to October 2005, but at a different location at the center and under a different subcontract than the previously resolved investigation. That investigation resulted in more than $141,000 being paid in back wages to 106 employees.

Wage and Hour Division investigators found that KTC violated federal requirements by failing to pay prevailing wage rates, prevailing fringe benefits and required overtime compensation.

The investigation was one of several investigations conducted under the Wage and Hour Division’s Katrina-related initiative to ensure that workers involved in hurricane-related activities are properly compensated. The Wage and Hour Division has dispatched additional investigators to the Gulf Coast region and created a Gulf Coast Task Force to provide increased enforcement support and boost compliance outreach activities.

Under the Service Contract Act, contractors and subcontractors with federal service contracts of more than $2,500 must pay their service workers no less than the wages and fringe benefits prevailing in the locality. Contractors in non-compliance may have their contract payments withheld until all workers are paid prevailing wages and fringe benefits. The Contract Work Hours Safety Standards Act requires workers employed on certain federally-funded contracts be paid one-and-one-half times the local prevailing wage rate for all hours worked more than 40 in a single workweek.

Workers who believe they may not have been paid in accordance with federal wage laws may confidentially contact a Wage and Hour Division investigator at 1-601-965-4347. For further information about laws administered by the Wage and Hour Division, call the department’s toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243) or visit the Wage and Hour Division Web site at www.wagehour.dol.gov, or contact the Gulf Coast district office at 955 22nd St. N., Suite 656, Birmingham, Ala.; (205) 731-1305.

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