Security guards fight for pay

A company with a history of unpaid wages disappears, leaving isle workers looking for answers

MORE THAN 50 Hawaii security guards are owed thousands of dollars by their former employer, a government contractor with a history of unpaid wages and a multimillion-dollar federal debt.

Texas-based Superior Protection won contracts last year with the city, the University of Hawaii-Hilo, the federal Defense Reuse Material Office at Barbers Point and Valley View condominiums in Mililani.

UNSECURED PAYMENTS » Fifty-five former employees of Superior Protection, a security contractor, say they are owed money for work since May 29. » The employees' former regional manager estimates an average of about $2,000 to $3,000 owed to each employee. » With 22 guards on Oahu and 33 in Hilo, the company could owe about $110,000 to $165,000.

However, the guards stopped being paid at about the time its parent company, Safeguard Security Holdings, sold it to its former owner. The former employees are now fighting to get what is owed to them.

There were 22 guards on Oahu and 33 working in Hilo, and each is owed $2,000 to $3,000 each on average, said the company's former regional manager, Michael Greenwood, who is owed about $4,000 for his work.

The guards are owed money for work from May 29 through July, but they are not alone. In Florida about 60 guards who protected federal buildings are owed five weeks of back pay, according to a July 7 article in the Tampa Tribune.

The company was a subsidiary of Safeguard Security Holdings Inc. from November 2004 until June, when it was sold. In the agreement, Superior's former owner, Jack Heard, purchased the subsidiary from Safeguard and assumed its assets and liabilities.

Chief Executive Officer W. Brown Glenn Jr. said in June that severing its relationship with Superior cut off "more than $9 million in current liabilities," according to a Safeguard news release in June.

Superior, established in 1999, has a $5 million debt to the Internal Revenue Service which ballooned after it did not remit payment of federal taxes withheld from payroll since 2001 through 2004, according to Safeguard's January filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Superior also owed Washington Mutual about $1.5 million by the end of last year.

The company has had a history of unpaid wages. In 2003 it agreed to pay $119,000 in unpaid overtime to 67 employees after a federal investigation.

In 2004, Superior Protection agreed to pay $229,098 to 118 guards in Texas following another investigation -- by then the fourth time in five years the company was cited for wage violations.

Despite the tax debt, Superior received a tax clearance from the state after it outlined an agreement with the IRS to pay the debt in installments.

"When they were awarded the contract, they had all the clearances they needed," spokesman Bill Brennan said. "So we had no reason not to give them the contract."

However, according to SEC documents, the $5 million was supposed to have been paid off by last May. Superior entered into an agreement in October 2004 to pay monthly installments of $50,000 plus interest with the remaining amount due in May.

If Safeguard was unable to pay the debt, it may have required Superior's liquidation, according to SEC documents.

In a letter to the city Department of Budget and Fiscal Services, Superior Protection Operations Director Reginald Jones asked to cancel the company's contract by July 30. This followed numerous complaints of bounced and missing paychecks, employees said.

Phones at Superior were not in service when the Star-Bulletin made attempts to call. Safeguard officials could not be reached for comment. Former employees also have had similar difficulties.

Now, Greenwood is calling on all former employees to file complaints with the state Labor Department. State labor spokesman James Hardway said 10 guards from UH-Hilo and four from the refuse stations already have filed complaints.

Hardway said the Labor Department also has had no luck getting a hold of the company in seeking payment, and that it is working with the city on a resolution.

But the city's hands in helping might be tied, said Wayne Hamada, refuse disposal operations engineer at the city Department of Environmental Services.

"Typically, whenever a contractor has a contract with the city, anything internal is very much out of our hands," Hamada said. "We don't baby-sit the contractor in how it pays its employees."

Former employee Stephanie Solusod recalled yesterday her unease when her paychecks were bouncing, then stopped coming.

"I heard it was happening to other employees, and when it happened to me, I started to get worried," said Solusod, now a guard for Wackenhut Corp. Wackenhut won the contract for three city refuse stations after Superior Protection reneged its contract.

If it were not for her mother, Solusod said she would have been behind on car payments and rent.

Solusod said she still has not received confirmation of her medical insurance from Superior Protection, and she is not sure if she has to pay for a hospital bill from the summer.

"It was like a dead end," she said. "I just got a new car in December. We were counting on these checks."