Worst corporate handout ever: How the government funds abusive tycoons

Forty-nine companies netted over $81 billion in federal government contracts last year despite drawing close to 1,800 total Department of Labor enforcement actions over six years – and paying out nearly $200 million in penalties and back wages  – according to a new report released by Senate Democrats.

“These findings are deeply troubling: almost thirty percent of companies with a significant violation of basic labor laws are federal contractors, and tens of thousands of American workers are paying the price – through shortchanged paychecks, with their safety, or, sadly, with their lives,” Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said in a statement. Harkin chairs the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, which released the report following what it called a year-long investigation. Harkin charged that the current system for federal contracting “has virtually no reliable tools in place to ensure that these violations of the law are ever considered before a contract is awarded.”
“Many of the most flagrant violators of workplace safety and wage laws are also recipients of large federal contracts,” states the HELP report, “Acting Responsibly? Federal Contractors Frequently Put Workers’ Lives and Livelihoods at Risk.”
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