Mail delivery contractor debarred from bidding on federal contracts

ANDOVER, N.J. – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Administrative Law Judges approved a consent finding and order to resolve a complaint filed against a New Jersey-based mail delivery contractor and others for failing to pay legally required wages and benefits to employees. Under the order, the company agreed to pay $245,000 in back wages. The department is now distributing the wages to the affected workers.

Dennis K. Walker Trucking Co. Inc. – doing business as Walker Trucking Co. – agreed to pay 23 drivers back wages for violating prevailing wage, fringe benefits and record-keeping provisions of the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act. The Andover company was also debarred from eligibility to bid on future government contracts for three years. Walker Trucking had been contracted by the U.S. Postal Service to haul mail.

The department filed a complaint against the company; its officer Mary B. Walker; manager Dennis K. Walker Jr., and D&M Leasing Corp., after an investigation by the Wage and Hour Division found that – from June 27, 2013, to June 26, 2015 – Walker Trucking Co. and Mary Walker failed to pay the prevailing wage to 10 drivers, full health and welfare fringe benefits to 23 drivers, and full vacation fringe benefits to eight drivers, as required by the SCA. The division also found that the firm failed to keep a record of the hours worked by employees.

“The resolution of this case ensures that workers at this company were paid the wages we found they rightfully earned, ensuring a level playing field for other mail-haul contractors,” said John Warner, director of the division’s Northern New Jersey District Office.

“Our goal is to ensure that companies that follow the rules – and their workers – are not placed at a disadvantage by those companies that do not,” said Jeffrey S. Rogoff, the department’s regional solicitor in New York.

The SCA applies to federal and District of Columbia contracts worth more than $2,500 that provide services in the U.S. using service employees. Contractors and subcontractors performing on covered service contracts must pay their service workers no less than the wages and fringe benefits prevailing in the locality, or rates contained in a predecessor contractor’s collective bargaining agreement.

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