ACT pickets local health center

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

August 24, 2013

By Wendy Holdren Register-Herald Reporter
A group of pickets with Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation were gathered on the roadway outside the Beckley VA Medical Center this week, holding signs that read “Demand Local Jobs for Local Workers.”

Representative Wayne Rebich said his group is concerned that the company hired to build an MRI center and an adult day care center at the VA, Seawolf Construction, is not following the same laws that West Virginia contractors are obligated to follow.

Seawolf Construction is a GSA-approved contractor, according to a representative for the Beckley VA Medical Center, and is based in Jersey City, N.J.

Rebich explained that Seawolf was the lowest bidder for both of the VA projects, so his organization contacted Seawolf to encourage them to hire local subcontractors.

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Elwood calls on CenterPoint to prove it’s complying with prevailing wage laws

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ELWOOD, Ill., Aug. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — The Village of Elwood has asked a judge to require CenterPoint Properties to provide documentation to determine if the developer is in compliance with state law in paying workers a prevailing wage.

Although state law and the Tax Incremental Finance (TIF) agreement between the Village and CenterPoint require that it pay prevailing wages, CenterPoint has refused to reveal any payroll documents that would confirm that workers are receiving prevailing wages at its Deer Run Industrial Park development, which is the focus of a TIF.

Today’s court filing is the most recent  development in an ongoing dispute, which prompted the Village to take legal action earlier this year after CenterPoint failed to provide information on how it spent $110 million in Village taxpayer dollars for the redevelopment of the 1,820-acre site at the former Joliet Arsenal.

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Sacramento landscaping company cited for wage theft

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California Labor Commissioner Julie Su has cited a Sacramento landscaping company with $665,000 in wage theft violations over a three-year period.

Sanctions against Michael Mello, owner of Green Valley Landscaping Services, include minimum wage violations of $338,175 for more than 40 employees, $169,088 in unpaid overtime and $157,500 for failure to provide itemized wage statements as required by California law.

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DIR Launches Roofing Compliance Working Group

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OAKLAND, Calif., Sept. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) today officially launches the Roofing Compliance Working Group to enforce safety and labor law standards in this key industry in California.

The Roofing Compliance Working Group (RCWG) is an arm of the Labor Enforcement Task Force (LETF), a multi-agency effort to combat the underground economy and improve the state’s business environment. RCWG is a collaboration of state and local agencies as well as labor and management. The group’s objectives include rapid response to complaints of workplace health and safety hazards in the roofing industry, as well as investigation of complaints related to payroll, misclassification and workers’ compensation issues.

“The roofing industry by nature comes with inherent risks, and we want to improve workplace safety for workers and help business owners who play by the rules to thrive,” said DIR Director Christine Baker.

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NLRB Rolls Out Labor Law App

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By Melanie Trottman

The National Labor Relations Board is marking Labor Day with a mobile-phone app to inform workers, employers and unions about their rights under the decades-old labor law.

“The promise of the law can only be fulfilled when employers and employees understand their rights and obligations,” NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce said in a statement.  The agency received more than 82,000 public inquiries last year about workplace issues, and “this app can help provide the answers,” he said.

MASSACHUSETTS RECOVERS MILLIONS IN REVENUE BY REDUCING EMPLOYER FRAUD AND WORKER MISCLASSIFICATION

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BOSTON – Thursday, September 5, 2013 – Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Joanne F. Goldstein today announced Massachusetts has recovered more than $21 million over an 18-month period in owed revenue recaptured through the collaborative work of the state’s Joint Enforcement Task Force on the Underground Economy and Employee Misclassification (the Joint Task Force). This recovered amount is greater than the sum of all previous years combined as detailed in the Joint Task Force’s 2012 Annual Report.

In March 2008, Governor Deval Patrick established the Joint Task Force to restore fairness to the Massachusetts economy by addressing employer fraud and misclassification. Working towards this goal, the Joint Task Force is composed of various state agencies including representatives from the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD), as well as other executive branch agencies, the Office of the Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division, the Office of the Treasurer’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission and the Insurance Fraud Bureau.

San Clemente Company Ordered to Give Back Pay After Wage Violations

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A San Clemente electrical services firm paid more than $240,000 in back wages to just over 100 employees after a Department of Labor investigation found the company violated overtime and record-keeping regulations.

Solis Lighting and Electrical Services was found to have not paid workers overtime after 40 hours, as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The company also deducted a 30-minute meal break from the daily hours of workers, even as they worked through their break.

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Labor law violations alleged at new Holiday Inn Express; lien seeks more than $247,600 in unpaid wages

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The California Labor Commission on Monday filed a lien on the Holiday Inn Express property in Eureka with the Humboldt County Recorder’s Office to recover more than $247,600 in unpaid wages for 31 construction workers.

PacWest Contracting, the subcontractor hired by Jansen Construction to build the hotel, allegedly misclassified employees as independent contractors to pay them less, California Department of Industrial Relations spokesman Peter Melton said.

Austin Council Standing Up For Prevailing Wages

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 J.W. Marriot developer, White Lodging, is in hot water for breaking a City of Austin contract by underpaying workers.The company received $3.8 million in tax breaks. Now council is giving them two options, pay the lost wages or pay back the city millions.Workers Defense Project spokesperson Patricia Zavala says they blew the whistle on the company. City auditors checked the numbers and found at least 13 employees were underpaid. Then the city ordered the developer to pay back the laborers in February, and then it was extended in March, then June.

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Tempe floor contractor forced to pay $100k in back wages

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Tempe-based Flooring Demolition Specialists LLC has paid $103,554 in back wages and liquidated damages to 24 employees.

An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that the Tempe floor removal contractor willfully violated the overtime and record-keeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The investigation by the division’s Phoenix District Office disclosed that a certain group of employees was paid straight time for all hours worked and did not receive an overtime premium for hours worked beyond 40 per week, as required by FLSA. The Tempe company also failed to pay employees for hours worked while loading company trucks and for travel time to job sites.