Breaking the law does pay for companies doing business with the U.S. government.

 

At least 20 federal contractors violated federal wage-and-hour rules, and were forced to pay more than $80 million in back wages. But that was easy to absorb for the businesses, seeing as how they subsequently received $9 billion in work from Uncle Sam.

 

The Government Accountability Office also found that BP was fined $55 million by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for labor law violations that were discovered after a “massive refinery explosion” in Texas City, Texas, in 2005 that killed 15 and injured almost 200 more. But, again, the company didn’t suffer, because it was awarded $2 billion in government contracts in FY2009 alone.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

GAO: Contractors Get Federal Business Despite Violations (by Joe Davidson, Washington Post)

Assessments and Citations of Federal Labor Law Violations by Selected Federal Contractors (Government Accountability Office) (pdf)

BP is Too Big to Punish (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)