Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
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US Labor Department debars Phoenix contractor after finding pay violations
Subcontractor worked on Recovery Act-funded apartment project in Yuma, Ariz.
PHOENIX -- The U.S. Department of Labor has debarred Phoenix-based Quality Builders Inc. from government contracts for three years. An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found multiple pay violations resulting in $107,363 in back wages due to 48 carpenters and laborers who worked on an 80-unit apartment housing construction project in Yuma, Ariz. The project was funded under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 under a contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Arizona Department of Housing.
“This employer undermined the purpose of the Recovery Act, which is to support good jobs that benefit the local economy,” said George Friday Jr., regional administrator for the Wage and Hour Division in San Francisco, Calif. “In addition to paying these carpenters and laborers the wages they are due, Quality Builders is being debarred from future contracts for the benefit of this community’s workers and other local contractors.”
Wage and Hour Division investigators found that Quality Builders failed to record actual hours worked and paid workers by the piece rate, not by the hour, with actual pay often falling below the prevailing wage and fringe benefit levels required for workers on government construction contracts. In addition, investigators determined that 40 employees should have received overtime pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a week.
Quality Builders must also pay $1,540 in liquidated damages.
The violations were cited under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts as well as the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act. DBRA requires payment of prevailing wages on federally-funded or assisted construction projects. Contractors and subcontractors are also required to pay covered workers weekly and submit weekly certified payroll records to the contracting agency.
For more information about federal prevailing wage and other wage laws, call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243) or the division’s district office in Phoenix at 602-514-7100. Information is also available on the Internet at www.dol.gov/whd.
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