Article Originally Published Here.
Security guards who worked at government buildings across Louisiana in October remain unpaid more than a month later, even after their employer’s contract was revoked and transferred to a new company.
Guard-Tac, which held a $2.8 million state contract to provide security services, failed to pay employees before losing the contract. Rivers Security, the previous contractor, has now resumed security services at state buildings.
State police made multiple attempts to contact Guard-Tac’s owner Damon Holden without response before revoking the contract, according to officials.
“The contract with Guard-Tac was cancelled due to a multitude of complaints, including employees alleging that they were unable to cash their paychecks or had their paychecks returned by the bank for insufficient funds,” Captain Russell Graham of the Louisiana State Police said. “Guard-Tac’s failure to compensate its employees, coupled with its failure to respond to numerous messages and emails from DPS and the Office of State Procurement, has created an undue hardship on both agencies and jeopardized the safety and well-being of the general public and State employees.”
Workers consider legal action
Josephine Washington, a security officer at the Insurance Commissioner’s building in downtown Baton Rouge, said she and other officers were told by the Department of Public Safety they would be made whole. However, a statement from department officials said they had no reason to make those promises.
“As of today (Nov. 7), Guard-Tac has not submitted an invoice for any work performed and has not received payment from DPS,” Captain Graham said. “If Guard-Tac submits an invoice, it will be thoroughly reviewed for accuracy before submission to DPS Financial Services. Guard-Tac is still responsible for compensating its employees for any work they performed while employed by Guard-Tac.”
Many employees walked off the job after paychecks failed to arrive last month. Washington said the workforce dropped from over 85 employees in September to fewer than 50 at the Baton Rouge locations alone. Washington estimates employees are owed for more than 11,000 hours of work at $15 per hour.
“All we ask is that they talk to us instead of talking to everybody else about what’s going on, tells us — we are the people who didn’t get paid,” Washington said.
Statewide Impact
State Rep. Ed Larvadain, an Alexandria attorney, said he was contacted by four former Guard Tac employees in his area who also report being unpaid. The contract also covers security services for government buildings in Lafayette, Shreveport, Monroe, and New Orleans.
“They’re struggling, they’re having problems paying car notes, paying house notes, making sure their kids have food,” Larvadain said.
Larvadain said the contract lapse creates security risks for valuable state assets and called for increased oversight of future contracts. In the meantime, he said he will be working with unpaid employees to collect time sheets and other necessary documentation to provide to the Attorney General’s office for review. His hope is that the AG can contact Guard Tac and help submit an invoice to the state so that employees can be made whole.
“If not, we will take it to court. You’ve got judges who are going to do what’s right, you have judges who will say, ‘hey, you hired this person and did this particular work, why you didn’t pay them?’” Larvadain said.
