RALEIGH, NC – Securing Our Country LLC (SOC) - based in Chantilly, Virginia, and operating as Day & Zimmerman Federal Services - has paid $195,513 in back wages and fringe benefits to 22 employees after a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (WHD) investigation found the employer violated requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act (SCA).

--- HR Classroom Training Tips:   Fair Labor Standards Act Training that instructs supervisors how to apply the law may have helped in this case.  --- 

WHD determined the employer incorrectly classified employees providing information technology work at two North Carolina Marine Corps installations - Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock and Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville - which led SOC to pay prevailing wage rates lower than those required by law. The employer also failed to keep accurate records reflecting the required SCA wage rates and the correct work classifications. In addition, WHD found that SOC failed to pay the appropriate overtime rates as a result of paying the wrong prevailing wage rate.

"Contractors and subcontractors awarded federal contracts must classify their employees accurately and pay the required prevailing wage rates that apply to those classifications, including fringe benefits," said Wage and Hour Division District Director Richard Blaylock, in Raleigh, North Carolina. "The U.S. Department of Labor works to make sure that employees receive the wages they have rightfully earned, and offers employers a wide variety of tools, including free prevailing wage seminars, to help them understand their responsibilities."

The SCA 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.