Employer is Refusing to Pay Workers Unless He's Paid on a Contract

My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: Maryland

Although the employer is based out of Maryland, this incident occurred in Virginia.

I and approximately 12 other individuals are federal contractors that worked for a small business supporting services to a Government Agency. In the beginning of June, our contract was terminated "at convenience of the Government" which we learned was as a result of the CEO of this small firm agitating the Government client. Upon being dismissed from the site, our employer continued to have us work and issued tasks for us to complete. On multiple occasions, he authorized persons to work over the weekend in order to complete the task. Additionally, he approved our hours in the time entry database he used to manage time entry.

After about a month of doing this, he ran out of work and money, and finally indirectly asked employees to disperse. When people began to ask him about receiving their money for the past month's worth of work, he told us he is not obligated to pay us unless the Government pays him for the rest of the money on the terminated contract. He informed us that since out contracts were specified to the work we were doing that was terminated, he is not obligated to pay us for the work he had us doing once the contract ended. He never indicated in any manner we would not be compensated for our efforts and that our contracts were terminated when the Government cancelled the work until recently, when he told us he is not obligated to pay unless he receives additional money from the Government (he has other Government contracts that still exist).

I have worked over 300 hours for him before moving on (all these hours were approved and documented). He now says he does not have to pay me unless he gets additional money. I was never informed these were the conditions and wasted over 300 hours supporting his tasks that misled me in to thinking there was continuing work.

What should I/we do?

You should show your contract to a labor law attorney and then contact the DOL.

If you were an employee, he needs to pay you whether or not his client pays him.

You refer to yourself as a "contractor" - are you an employee or an independent contractor?

We were employees of a contracting company - we were not 1099'd either.

He cites that since our contracts define "billable work" as being at the client site, then once work terminated we were terminated. However, he just now told us this after 3 months have passed.

He also had been continuing to have us produce products for him for over a month after the contract terminated so he could try to win back the work he had lost. He approved these hours and even went so far as to say we will be paid for these hours (which could also be inferred by him approving our hours in his time entry database). I figured he would be good for his word so I let time pass assuming he would withhold his promise. However, as time passed he kept putting payment off until now, where it seems he no longer feels we were entitled to this pay.

Have you read this?