INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Federal investigators are examining
whether a military subcontractor underpaid scores of medical workers in
Afghanistan, pocketing federal funds that the government intended the
company use to pay its employees.
A lawsuit brought in Indiana
last week by Laura Hawkins of Bloomington claims Onsite Occupational
Health and Safety Inc. underpaid her for the 84-hour weeks she routinely
worked. Twenty other former employees have since joined the lawsuit,
which has been moved to federal court. The complaint seeks class action
status.
OHS, which is based in Princeton, Indiana, denies the
allegations, which could involve more than $7 million in dispute. It
says Hawkins was paid appropriately and the claims have no basis.
Alex
Bronstein-Moffly, a spokesman for the Office of the Special Inspector
General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, told The Associated Press an
investigation is being conducted but declined to elaborate.
The
complaint claims that OHS cheated its employees and the government by
keeping money that should have been paid out for overtime.
OHS, a
subcontractor for another company that is a primary contractor for the
Army, provides medical services to U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Hawkins, a
radiologic technician, worked for OHS at a site in Afghanistan.
The
lawsuit claims Hawkins and other OHS employees were routinely required
to work 84 hours a week or more without being paid at an overtime rate
for work over 40 hours. The complaint maintains that OHS was obligated
under terms of its contracts with the government and its primary
contractor to pay overtime. The lawsuit says OHS refused to release
those documents, but that the company is required to abide by federal
and Indiana wage laws.
"By retaining monies which the U.S.
government intended for payment of wages to OHS employees, OHS is
unjustly and wrongfully enriching itself," the lawsuit says.
Hawkins’
complaint does not specify an amount of damages. But in an affidavit
filed with the U.S. District Court for southern Indiana, OHS Director of
Human Capital Jeff Devine calculated the total overtime allegedly due
to the company’s 237 employees who would be covered if the complaint is
found valid at more than $7 million.
"Onsite believes she was paid
properly and that it has not violated the law with regard to Ms.
Hawkins or anyone else," Devine said in an email to The Associated
Press. In another email, Devine also called the claims "unfounded."
It
isn’t the first time such claims have surfaced in Afghanistan, though
officials say OHS hasn’t been investigated before. The Special Inspector
General’s office alerted Secretary of State John Kerry and other
officials to claims of financial mistreatment of subcontractors and
employees in June 2013.
The Special Inspector General’s office is
currently reviewing 23 active complaints involving nonpayment to
subcontractors and employees, spokesman Philip J. LaVelle told the AP on
Wednesday.
LaVelle said the office receives about eight to ten such
complaints each month.
Since December 2013, about $472,000 in
contested payments has been made to subcontractors and employees
following inquiries by the office, LaVelle said.