Guam contractor to pay $190K in unpaid fringe benefits to employees for federal contract violations

Employers: Able Industries of the Pacific, Inc.

Sites: Formerly located at 341 South Marine Corps Drive, Jay Ease Building Suite 204, in Tamuning, Guam. (Business has closed)

Investigation findings: Able Industries failed to pay legally required health and welfare benefits to hundreds of employees who provided dining, janitorial and maintenance services at several facilities at Anderson Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam from 2011 to 2013 in violation of the Service Contract Act.

Resolution: The firm will pay $190,578 to 202 employees for unpaid fringe benefits required by the Service Contracts Act. The company has also been barred from bidding on any federal contracts for three years.

Quote: "Employers who contract with the federal government cannot circumvent or ignore their legal obligation to pay the contract's baseline minimum wages and benefits to their workers," said Terence Trotter, director of the Wage and Hour District Office in Honolulu. "Thanks to this settlement, employees will now receive their long-overdue benefits. The fact that this contractor is now ineligible to bid on future contracts for three years should send a strong message to other employers hoping to secure work for the federal government- play by the rules, or face the consequences."

Information: For more information about federal wage laws administered by the Wage and Hour Division, call the agency's toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information also is available at http://www.dol.gov/whd/.

SCA: The McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act requires contractors and subcontractors performing services on prime contracts in excess of $2,500 to pay service employees in various classes no less than the wage rates and fringe benefits found prevailing in the locality, or the rates (including prospective increases) contained in a predecessor contractor's collective bargaining agreement. The Department of Labor issues wage determinations on a contract-by-contract basis in response to specific requests from contracting agencies.