135.5 Labor Compliance

135.5.1 Contractor’s Weekly Payroll

(This is required on all projects except those that do not contain Wage Rate Determinations). The prime contractor and each subcontractor is required to submit one certified copy of labor payrolls for each week that work is in progress. If work is temporarily suspended, the last payrolls should be appropriately marked to note that it would be the last payroll until work is resumed.

The prime contractor must submit a certified copy of each weekly payroll within 7 days of the payment date of the payroll. The certification may be attached to the payroll or may be on the payroll itself. The prime contractor will be considered responsible for submittal of payrolls and certifications for all subcontractors on the project. The prime contractor should be advised that failure to submit these payrolls within the 7-day period will result in delay in submittal of the engineer's payment estimates for each project involved. Estimates not submitted by the established date are to be withheld until the next estimate period. Payrolls should be kept in a secure storage area since the Social Security numbers of the contractor’s employees are included.

All payroll checking is to be done at the project level, with the following checks made to insure proper labor compliance:

a. The resident engineer or delegated representative is to check payrolls to be sure the employee's full name as shown on the social security card, address and social security number are entered on each payroll.

b. Check payroll for correct employee classification.

c. Check payroll for correct hourly wage and, where applicable, correct overtime hourly rate.

d. Check daily and weekly hours worked in each classification including actual overtime hours worked. (Not adjusted hours.)

e. All deductions are listed and net wage shown. U.S. Department of Labor Form WH-347 may be used.

f. To assure that payrolls are arithmetically correct, approximately 10% of the extensions on the first 3 payrolls should be checked. The contractor is to be advised of any violations noted on the labor payroll. All errors are to be corrected by a supplementary payroll.

g. All checking in the project office should be in red pencil, initialed by the checker.

h. No attempt should be made to calculate withholding tax, old age benefits, etc., as this is beyond the scope of our work.

i. Final payrolls should be marked "Final" or "Last Payroll".

j. A record of all payrolls is to be maintained by the resident engineer. Payrolls are to be kept in the resident engineer's office for the duration of the project. After project completion, payrolls are to be sent to the district office where they shall be stored for a period of three years.

Owner-Operator

An owner operator is when a contractor rents a piece of equipment and the operator comes with the rental equipment. A prime contractor can use owner-operators on MoDOT projects according to the Division of Labor. There are certain restrictions that would apply. Only the owner can operate the piece of equipment on site. The owner cannot have other employees on the job. The owner would not be subject to prevailing wage rates and therefore no wage rate interviews will need to be taken. Since this is a rental the prime contractor's insurance would cover the work performed by the owner-operator. The project office should obtain a copy of the contract between the prime contractor and owner operator. This is to assure that it is a legitimate arrangement and not an attempt to circumvent prevailing wage rate laws.

135.5.2 Statement of Compliance

The prime contractor and each subcontractor is required to submit a weekly statement of compliance within 7 days of the payment date of each payroll period. This statement is to be submitted in the prescribed form set out in "Required Contract Provisions" included in the contract. Failure to comply within 7 days should delay submittal of payment estimates.

A record of all statements is to be maintained by the resident engineer. The statement should be attached to the payroll for the corresponding period. Payrolls are stored in the project office after completion of the project.

135.5.3 Weekly Payrolls and Statement of Compliance

Contractor's payrolls, certifications, and statements of compliance are not required on Railroad or other Utility Adjustments, or on Maintenance funded projects.

135.5.4 Labor Interviews

Project personnel are to conduct one wage rate interview on each Interstate Project per week, one wage rate interview on each Federal Aid Primary or Federal Aid Urban Project every two weeks and one wage rate interview on Supplementary and 100% State Financed Projects every four weeks. Labor interviews are not required on Railroad and other Utility Adjustments.

Interviews should be noted in SiteManager. See your SiteManager Policy & Procedure Document. The interviewer should determine employee's name, employer's name, classification of employee, actual wage paid, and posted wage. Care should be taken to secure any written record of wage interviews since the employee’s Social Security number is included.

The district construction engineer is to submit a semi-annual report to the main office containing the following information:

a. Number of contractors/subcontractors against whom complaints were received._______

b. Number of investigations completed. _______

c. Number of contractors/subcontractors found in violation. _______

d. Amount of wage restitution found due under:

(1) Davis-Bacon and related Acts $_______

(2) Work Hours Act of 1962 $_______

(The Davis-Bacon Act encompasses prevailing wage rate violations, whereas the Contract Work Hours Act encompasses daily and weekly overtime violations.)

e. Number of employees due wage restitution under Davis-Bacon and related Acts and/or Work Hours Act of 1962._______

f. Amount of liquidated damages assessed under Work Hours Act of 1962. _______

The above report is due not later than April 4 for the period from October 1 to March 31, and not later than October 5 for the period from April 1 to September 30. This report should include all information gathered on all Federal Aid Projects.