Legal Question in Employment Law in District of Columbia
Contract Employee; breach of contract; Service Contract
An 8A Contractor from VA entered into service contract with a federal agency USAID (in Washington DC). The contract stated that a ''File Analyst/Project Leader'' which was my title should receive a ''burdened hourly rate'' of $37.04 an hour. The rate had a built in health insurance to start immediately after employment. The contractor charged USAID $37.04 for every hour I worked, and paid me $19.10 an hour. Also, contractor did not provide me with health insurance until 60+ days later in breach contract which also made me illegible for normal coverage and imposed preexisting conditions rule for one year. Because I supervised 4 employees and managed the contract, DOL says I am not covered under SCA. DOL told me to go back to USAID and ask that they enforce contract. USAID tells me that my dispute is between me and contract company. Can I have a claim against the contractor directly for breach of contract. Can I challenge that they kept 52.23% of every dollar I made? That contractor is liquid has many other contracts; they lost contract with USAID (after audit)showing they were not paying benefits properly to contract workers (laborers).
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Contract Employee; breach of contract; Service Contract
Unless you yourself had a specific contract with the 8A Contractor for your services as a File Analyst/Project Leader, I don't see you recovering anything under a breach of contract theory for various reasons including the one already specified to you by the DOL.