Sunshine Week: Beat reporter shines light on schools’ use of federal contracts

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By Robert Brauchle

March 16, 2015

 

Reporter Ryan Murphy began 2014 with a tip that Isle of Wight County Schools may have skirted federal regulations in the construction of the new Georgie D. Tyler Middle School.

Using the state Freedom of Information Act to access copies of contracts, emails and bid documents, the Daily Press Isle of Wight County beat reporter found that the school division had omitted wage standards from the construction contract that are required under the federal Davis-Bacon Act. The effect was to lower the cost of construction by underpaying local workers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“I spent a couple of months digging into the documents and digging into legislation to figure out exactly what had happened,” Murphy said.

Murphy worked with school administrators to get the documents he needed.

(Read More)

Texas Urged to Crack Down on Employers That Misclassify Workers

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By Julian Aguilar

March 15, 2015

 

Workers’ rights groups in Texas are revamping their efforts to increase protections for low-income laborers by urging lawmakers to crack down on employers that intentionally misclassify their employees.

Misclassifying workers as independent contractors – rather than employees – allows employers to avoid paying payroll taxes, overtime and workers’ compensation. The practice also allows employers to skirt federal law that requires new hires to provide proof that they can work in the country legally.

About 35,000 Texas workers were misclassified between 2010 and 2012, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. That includes 4,300 in the construction industry and 4,100 in the health care and social assistance industries. Those workers’ employers should have paid about $2.4 million to the state’s unemployment insurance fund, according to a report by the Legislative Budget Board.

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Hein signs construction apprenticeship law

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Saturday, March 14, 2015

 

 

KINGSTON – Ulster County Executive Michael Hein on Friday signed into law a new policy that requires contractors entering into contracts with the County of Ulster to have apprenticeship agreements for certain bridge contracts of over $500,000.

Contractors must have apprenticeship agreements appropriate to the type and scope of work to be performed and must be registered with and approved by the state Labor Department.

Hein said the law will “help ensure we have a well-trained generation of high skilled local tradesmen to tackle the monumental task of rebuilding infrastructure through the Hudson Valley.”

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NC board takes action against construction firm

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Wake GOP legislator wants to change law to protect workers from job misclassification

BY MANDY LOCKE AND RICK ROTHACKER
03/07/2015

For businesses that want to install plumbing or heaters in North Carolina, here’s a message from state regulators: Follow the law and treat workers as employees or don’t do business here.

If some legislators have their way, that message will be locked into law during this session of the General Assembly for those companies and other employers. Companies that improperly treat employees as contractors could risk their professional licenses and face steep fines. Those that do would be barred from doing business with the state.

“We’ve got to protect the worker and fair competition in this state,” said Rep. Gary Pendleton, a Wake County Republican who is planning to introduce a bill Monday that would make employee misclassification a violation of the law.

Labor Enforcement Task Force (LETF)

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Learn more about LETF in California and the Underground Economy

 

The Labor Enforcement Task Force, under the direction of the Department of Industrial Relations, is a coalition of California State government enforcement agencies that work together and in partnership with local agencies to combat the underground economy. In this joint effort, information and resources are shared to ensure employees are paid properly and have safe work conditions and honest, law-abiding businesses have the opportunity for healthy competition.

DU Launches Study on How Wage Theft Occurs in Construction Industry

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By: Anna Boiko-Weyrauch

March 4, 2015

 

A new study seeks to collect detailed information about how wage theft occurs in the construction industry in Colorado. The project, organized by the University of Denver will also extend legal services to research participants who have not received the wages they are owed.

DU students and law professor Raja Raghunath have already been answering legal questions at informal, street-side gatherings in Denver and Aurora where day-laborers assemble to find work.

Researchers expect to interview approximately 75 day-laborers by the time the project is completed next June, University of Denver anthropologist Rebecca Galemba said.

(Read More)

State seeks cheating employers

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BY MAGGIE LEE

March 3, 2015

 

 

ATLANTA — An untold number of Georgians are working when and where their bosses say, but instead of getting the benefits of employees, they are classified as contractors.

Some say that hurts the employee, the government and law-abiding companies. Now, the state Legislature is starting to listen.

State Rep. Ronnie Mabra, D-Fayetteville, is an attorney who said his law firm hires employees but also works with contractors. He told a House of Representatives panel that he respects the difference, but other employers are known to cheat and put workers in the wrong category.

“We have the issue where employers are misclassifying employees and independent contractors,” Mabra said Tuesday.

What that means is some employers set tight rules on the people who work for them but cut their own payroll tax bills by hiring the workers as contractors instead of as employees.

Misclassification is “pretty widespread,” said Ted Terry, state campaign director at the Georgia AFL-CIO. Some cable installers, construction workers, stagehands and even security guards at strip clubs are frequently used as employees but classified as contractors, Terry said

Loretto Man Gets 22 Months For Lying About Employee Wages

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March 3, 2015 3:26 PM

 

 

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 52-year-old Loretto man was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court to nearly two years federal prison for lying about employee wages for a company that assisted with state highway and road construction projects.

Jeffery John Plzak was ordered to serve 22 months in prison, pay $240,000 in restitution along with a fine and will be on one year of supervised release after serving his term. He pleaded guilty to one count of false statements on July 8, 2014.

(Read More)

Drywall contractor owes ‘tapers’ more than $98K in back wages

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PR Drywall of Hillsboro, Oregon, underpays 7 workers in wages and overtime

U.S. Department of Labor              Wage and Hour Division

Release Number: 15-136-SAN       Date: March 3, 2015

PORTLAND, Ore. — Seven “tapers” working for PR Drywall LLC of Hillsboro will receive more than $98,000 in back wages after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found their employer failed to pay prevailing wages and overtime payments as they worked constructing the Tualatin Marquis Assisted Living Center. Built with federal financing assistance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the project and its contractors were subject to the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division investigated PR Drywall, a subcontractor on the Tualatin project. The agency determined that the tapers, also called drywall finishers, who prepare and press wet compound into joints, nail or screw holes in the drywall and then cover the wet material with tape, were paid below the prevailing wage rates required by the DBRA. The employees also worked beyond 40 hours in a workweek without being paid time and one-half, as required by law.

PR Drywall was found liable for $89,525 under the DBRA for prevailing wage violations, and $8,557 under the FLSA for overtime violations.

Study Perfectly Illustrates Why Arguments Against Prevailing Wage are Illogical and Absurd

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March 2015 – As in many states across the country, there is a vigorous debate underway right now in our neighboring state of Nevada over whether construction workers on public projects deserve to be paid the wage that prevails and is paid to the vast majority of construction workers in a state, whether it be on private or public projects (the prevailing wage).

As in those other states, Nevada Democrats are fighting to protect workers’ wages, while Republicans are crusading to slash them. These Republicans, who ran as “middle of the road” Republicans, wooed and appealed to the values of union working people, who failed to recognize them for the threat they were. These Republican politicians won the votes of too many unionized workers, including Building Trades workers, and took over Nevada’s government.

But they were wolves in sheep’s clothing, and once in power, reverted to their true nature, taking a terrible toll on the working families that helped elect them.

(Read More)

(PDF Copy of Study)