Response to email inquiry about VA accounts - sm

My understanding, according to conversations with several people at the Department of Labor in several states, is that anyone working on a VA contract must have employee status and must be paid the wage determination rate, or prevailing wage, for the state and county in which the client (or VA facility) is located.  It does not matter what the wage determination rate is for the state and county in which you reside.  Therefore, if you work on several different VA accounts, there may be several different hourly rates at which you will be paid.

As far as your required minimum lines-transcribed-per-hour, that is up to your employer.  As far as the DOL is concerned, your grossing earnings for a pay period must equal at least the hours you worked multiplied by the wage determination rate for that specific account's location.  It does not matter if you transcribed 50 lines per hour.  If your employer wants to pay you on a production basis, your gross pay may actually come out to be greater than that, depending on how fast you are.  This is fine as long as the total gross comes out to an hourly pay of at least the wage determination rate multiplied by the hours you worked.  By the way, according to the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act, I believe you are supposed to get paid holidays, vacation, and some type of other benefits, too.

If your employer is telling you that on VA accounts you still only have to be paid on a production basis and not by the hour because you are not fast enough, this is NOT TRUE.  As I said before, your required minimum rate of production is determined by your employer.  It can be 100 lines per hour or 200 lines per hour.  It makes no difference in that you still have to be paid at least the wage determination rate per hour for the hours you work.  If your employer is unhappy with your speed, they do have the right to terminate you.  Just remember--then you can and should file a complaint with the DOL and seek back pay for all the time you worked on those VA accounts and did not make at least the WDR.  As an altruistic bonus, anyone else who worked for your employer on those specific VA accounts and was not paid the WDR will also benefit by receiving back pay as a result of your complaint and the ensuing investigation.  You can actually file a complaint anonymously if you are still employed, but your boss may surmise it was you and fire you in retaliation.  That is not legal, but it is very difficult to prove that is why you were fired, so think carefully if you decide to file while still employed by them.  By the way, I'm curious as to what your employer does require in terms of productivity rate.  Can you please share that?

If you still have any doubts or questions about how you are supposed to be paid when working on VA accounts, please call the Department of Labor (try starting with the US Department of Labor in Washington, DC, since these are federal contracts) and talk to someone who is familiar with the provisions in the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act.