Source: http://openjurist.org/661/f2d/776
Timestamp: 2015-11-26 00:54:28
Document Index: 75079850

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 351', '§ 351', '§ 351', '§ 351', '§ 351', '§ 4']

661 F2d 776 Miscellaneous Service Workers Drivers Helpers Teamsters Local v. Philco-Ford Corporation Wdl Division | OpenJurist
661 F. 2d 776 - Miscellaneous Service Workers Drivers Helpers Teamsters Local v. Philco-Ford Corporation Wdl Division HomeFederal Reporter, Second Series 661 F.2d.
661 F2d 776 Miscellaneous Service Workers Drivers Helpers Teamsters Local v. Philco-Ford Corporation Wdl Division 661 F.2d 776
25 Wage & Hour Cas. (BN 185, 92 Lab.Cas. P 34,093
MISCELLANEOUS SERVICE WORKERS, DRIVERS & HELPERS, TEAMSTERSLOCAL # 427, Plaintiff,andRoger T. Abe, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants,v.PHILCO-FORD CORPORATION, WDL DIVISION, formerly known asAeronutronic Ford Corporation, and now known asFord Aerospace & CommunicationsCorporation, Defendant-Appellee.
Submitted June 11, 1980.Decided Nov. 16, 1981.
Lawrence I. Weisman, Honolulu, Hawaii, for plaintiffs-appellants.
Jared H. Jossem, Torkildson, Katz, Jossem & Loden, Honolulu, Hawaii, for defendant-appellee.
The primary issue in this case is whether the Service Contract Act of 1965, as amended, 41 U.S.C. § 351 et seq., permits the employees of a successor contractor to a government service contract to maintain a private right of action under the Act against their employer for alleged violations of the Act. The secondary issues concern alleged fraud and a pendent state wage and hour claim.
Plaintiffs-appellants are former employees of Lockheed Missile and Space Company ("Lockheed") who worked at the United States Government's Kaena Point Missile Tracking Station, and became employees of defendant-appellees Aeronutronic Ford Corporation ("AFC") upon succession to Air Force contract for operation of the Kaena Point station in 1972.1
Plaintiffs allege three basic causes of action against AFC: (1) for violations of the Service Contract Act of 1965 ("SCA"), as amended, 41 U.S.C. § 351 et seq., in failing to compensate plaintiffs at prevailing wage and fringe benefit levels under their previous contract with Lockheed; (2) for deceit and misrepresentation in falsely advising plaintiffs that the SCA did not apply to their contract; and (3) for violating statutory provisions of the Hawaii Wage and Hour Law, Haw.Rev.Stat. Chapters 387 & 388, in failing to pay fringe benefits due plaintiffs. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of AFC with respect to the first claim on the grounds that the SCA, as originally enacted, did not create a private cause of action against employers who violate the Act. The second claim was dismissed for failure to plead with particularity in accordance with Rule 9, Fed.R.Civ.P. The third claim was dismissed for failure to state a claim as required by Rule 12(b)(6), Fed.R.Civ.P. This appeal followed, and we affirm.
The missile tracking stations at Kaena Point, Hawaii and Kodiak, Alaska were operated by Lockheed under an Air Force contract prior to 1971. In May 1971, AFC was awarded the contract to staff and operate these tracking stations. However, an intervening legal dispute,2 unrelated to the instant action, prevented AFC from assuming responsibility for operation of the stations, and Lockheed continued to operate the stations on a "month-to-month" basis on October 30, 1972.3 After November 1972, AFC assumed full responsibility for maintenance and operation from Lockheed.
Concurrent with AFC's assumption of its duties under the Air Force contract, various labor organizations, including plaintiff, began negotiating with AFC over collective bargaining rights for the service employees of the tracking stations. The vast majority of AFC's employees were former Lockheed employees who opted to go to work for the successor contractor, AFC. While negotiations were ongoing in May 1973, "Wage and Hour Poster No. 1313" was posted at AFC's premises advising the station employees of certain rights under both the Walsh-Healey Act4 and the SCA. The poster did not inform them which act governed their contract. The negotiations culminated in a collective bargaining agreement between AFC and the union on July 24, 1973. Plaintiffs concede that all wages, hours, and conditions of employment were set forth fully in that collective bargaining agreement. The AFC fringe benefit program as finally memorialized in the collective bargaining agreement varied somewhat from that of Lockheed.5
II. THE SERVICE CONTRACT ACT
Section 2 of the Service Contract Act requires the inclusion of specific provisions establishing minimum wage and fringe benefit levels in every contract entered into by the United States in excess of $2,5006 "the principal purpose of which is to furnish services in the United States through the use of service employees." 41 U.S.C. § 351(a). A contract subject to the SCA must contain, for example, "a provision specifying the fringe benefits to be furnished the various classes of service employees..." 41 U.S.C. § 351(a) (2). This wage and fringe benefit determination is explicitly directed to the responsibility of the Secretary of Labor "in accordance with prevailing rates for such employees in the locality, or where a collective bargaining agreement covers any such service employees, in accordance with the rates for such employees provided for in such agreement..." 41 U.S.C. § 351(a)(1) (emphasis added).
In 1972, Congress, dissatisfied with the Secretary of Labor's inconsistent administration of the Act, amended the Act to strengthen enforcement of congressional objectives: "To provide assurance that employees working for service contractors under a collective bargaining agreement will have wages and fringe benefits under a new service contract no lower than those under their current agreement."7 One addition, subsection, § 4(c), prohibits a successor contractor from paying service employees less than the wages and fringe benefits to which they would have been entitled under a predecessor's contract. The new subsection provides:
(c) No contractor or subcontractor under a contract, which succeeds a contract subject to this chapter and under which substantially the same service are furnished, shall pay any service employee under such contract less than the wages and fringe benefits, including accrued wages and fringe benefits, and any prospective increases in wages and fringe benefits provided for in a collective-bargaining agreement as a result of arm's length negotiations, to which such service employees would have been entitled if they were employed under the predecessor contract : Provided, That in any of the foregoing circums