The U.S. Department of Labor is seeking nearly 2,900 workers employed by subcontractors during the 2015 avian flu outbreak.
These workers are reportedly owed back wages after their employers failed to pay them the prevailing wage and fringe benefits and miscalculated their hourly rate for overtime pay, according to an April 10 news release. DOL is seeking $1.7 million as part of the settlement.
“Employers of more than 2,900 people who worked long hours in response to an environmental disaster shortchanged their hard-earned wages,” DOL Regional Wage and Hour Division Administrator Michael Lazzeri said in the release. “Prime contractors, such as Clean Harbors, are responsible for their compliance with federal contract labor protections as well as the compliance of the subcontractors they employ.”
The U.S. Department of Labor secured a consent judgment to recover funds for nearly 2,900 workers employed by 145 subcontractors in 2015 to euthanize birds and dispose of carcasses during the avian flu outbreak, the release reported. The department is trying to locate workers owed back wages. The subcontractors failed to pay workers the prevailing wage and fringe benefits and miscalculated workers’ hourly rate for overtime pay.
Clean Harbors Environmental Services, contracted April-September 2015 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will pay the back wages as part of the settlement, according to the release. Subcontractors such as Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, Cotton Logistics, SWS Environmental Services, Trident Environmental Group and Triad Services employed many of the workers in Iowa.
Workers can use the department’s Workers Owed Wages search tool to see if their names are included in the wage settlement agreement, the release said.
Investigators found the subcontractors failed to pay workers the applicable wage determination, paying workers less than the required prevailing wage and fringe benefits and miscalculating workers’ hourly rate for overtime pay, according to the release. Clean Harbors Environmental Services, founded in 1980, is a leading provider of environmental and industrial services to the chemical and manufacturing industries and to government agencies.
