Nearly 40 workers shortchanged by a local lighting company that helped improve energy efficiency at Marine Corps Base Hawaii several years ago will be paid $1.2 million following a federal investigation.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced the resolution Thursday in the case against Honolulu-based Lighting Services Inc., led by Scott Wilks.
Most of the 38 electricians and technicians will receive more than $25,000 apiece. The lowest sum owed is $1,221. The highest is $98,296.
Part of resolving the case also involves banning Lighting Services and Wilks from doing federal contract work for three years.
Ken Seabury, a Lighting Services office manager, said the company is transferring ongoing contracts to other firms as part of shutting down.
Seabury said he is helping wind down operations and does not know what transpired with the wage issue. He added that Wilks is no longer with the company, which was founded in 1980 and at one time maintained lighting at local supermarket chains and other projects.
According to court documents, Lighting Services was awarded a $3.6 million subcontract to make lighting upgrades at the Kaneohe military base in 2008 under Massachusetts-based energy services firm NORESCO LLC.
The lighting work lasted two years, during which the Labor Department began an investigation as to whether Lighting Services was following rules requiring that laborers on federal service contracts are paid prevailing rates stated by the department along with overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 per week.
The Labor Department said its investigation found that Lighting Services instructed employees to falsify time records and misrepresent the type of work they did. The agency also said the company failed to list numerous workers on certified payroll records and in some cases paid workers $20 an hour below required wage rates.
"Businesses that benefit from federal dollars have a responsibility to play by the rules, and that includes paying employees legally required wages," U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said in a written statement. "Having a federal contract is a privilege, not a right. And we will remain steadfast in our enforcement of laws that level the playing field for those employers who are doing the right thing."
Terence Trotter, district director in Hawaii for the department’s Wage and Hour Division, said workers are being contacted by letter and that the department recovered the money for the repayments.
"They will be getting some significant back wages," he said.
Initially the Labor Department sought $1.7 million in back wages in litigation initiated last year with the Office of Administrative Law Judges in Washington, D.C., against Lighting Services, Wilks and NORESCO.
NORESCO had deposited $1.7 million with the department, and was refunded $500,000 after a settlement was reached. NORESCO had previously sought to collect the wage underpayments from an insurance company that had issued a performance bond for Lighting Services, though that case was settled in U.S. District Court in Hawaii in 2013.
Star-Advertiser reporter William Cole contributed to this report.
