Senate foodservice vendor to pay $1M in back wages

Senate cafeteria workers will receive more than $1 million in back pay after an investigation conducted by the Labor Department found that the cafeteria’s vendor misclassified workers’ job titles to reflect lower wages, according to a report by Roll Call.

The vendor, Compass Group’s Restaurant Associates, also required overtime without compensation and failed to pay out health and other benefits, the Labor Department found.

Many workers brought their cases directly to Capitol officials earlier this year, alleging that Restaurant Associates and its subcontractors purposefully misclassified job titles to circumvent a wage raise required by a seven-year contract that was made final in December.

An initial survey of 86 workers found that 35 of their jobs had been reclassified, prompting the Labor Department to look into the issue further.

Six hundred and seventy-four workers are owed back pay, according to the Labor Department’s order.

“We are 100 pere committed to ensuring classifications are accurate moving forward,” Restaurant Associates Senior Vice President Sam Souccar said in a statement, noting that “administrative technicalities” led to the classification errors.

Many Senate members are now pushing to terminate Restaurant Associates’ contract, and the Labor Department is reviewing the findings to decide if the vendor should be barred from obtaining future contracts with the federal government.

“This shows that when workers act, workers can win,” Joseph Geevarghese, director of labor advocacy group Good Jobs Nation, told Roll Call.

The findings are the latest in a series of tumultuous events between Senate cafeteria staff and the vendor that oversees them. Last year, workers at Senate eateries and the Capitol Visitor Center went on strike, calling for a $15 minimum wage and the ability to unionize. The effort, which was backed by several members of the Senate, secured them a higher minimum wage of $13.30.