I met Bob Whitaker, the owner of Whitaker Construction during the summer of 2009 and did a few jobs for him, for which I was paid promptly. In early 2010, he approached me about a job he was doing on the Navy base for Hansell Phelps and needed someone who knew what he was doing to run the job. He offered the job to me at a handsome salary, paid housing and paid for my plane ticket to Guam and met with my wife and me to discuss the particulars before I left. At no time did he indicate any reservations to me. My wife was planning on joining me in a few months.
After I got to Guam and we started the job, it became obvious that his son, Ben Whitaker was taking over to run the job and I was to be just labor. That would have been fine. I called Bob and made sure I would be paid the wage I was promised and that taxes were going to be taken care of and reported to the government of Guam or the US, which ever applied. He assured me that it would be just fine.
When I received my first check, I was paid $15/hour less that I was promised and no taxes were taken out of my check. I asked Ben, who indicated that this is the salary I was being paid, this is the way it is and if I don't like it, go back to the States. I called Bob, who said that Ben decided that he wanted to run the job and that it's a family business and that's the way it was.
First of all, they misrepresented themselves to get me to Guam and secondly they are not deducting and reporting my income to the IRS as I repeatedly requested. It took a few days for them to email me a breakdown of the income I did receive to even know that I was being cheated.
I feel betrayed by Ben and Bob Whitaker and since this a government sub-contract with Hansell Phelps, you'd think that they would have to pay their workers government prevailing wage which is $40+ per hour.
This is not fair. I am thousands of miles away from my family and stuck on a job for which I am not being paid what I was promised. I have 5 months that I have to deal with this.
I have a feeling that Ben calculated what they would make by paying his workers barely anything, and keeping the profits for himself.
Be careful if you take a job with Whitaker Construction. Make sure you get a written contract because I based my future on a handshake which I considered honorable, but discovered that their word is not truthful.