Naval Base Kitsap contractor must pay $239,000 in wages

BREMERTON — A Naval Base Kitsap contractor must pay an additional $239,000 in wages to 26 workers after an investigation by the federal Department of Labor found they had been under-compensated for their work.

It’s the second time Nova Group Inc. has been found in violation of prevailing wage requirements, the Labor Department said. Its work in Kitsap includes $21.5 million in projects on the Bangor waterfront and $17.8 million in dry dock work at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

The workers — which included carpenters, forklift operators, pipefitters and electricians — were classified as general laborers, positions that did not pay prevailing wages and benefits, the Kitsap Sun reported.

“Our investigation found this employer shorting the hard-earned wages of these skilled workers,” said Thomas Silva, the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division District Director in Seattle.

Nova Group Inc., which began building steam lines at Mare Island Naval Shipyard more than 40 years ago, has received more than $2 billion in federal contracts.

The company specializes in constructing utilities, piping, wharves and other marine infrastructure. It has a contract to modernize dry dock 6 at the shipyard — the only such dock capable of holding an aircraft carrier on the West Coast.