Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota today announced the indictment and arraignment of a company president and her two adult children for a pair of separate criminal schemes; the overbilling of Islip town for Superstorm Sandy cleanup, and the submission of false payroll records to hide the firm’s non-compliance with state wage laws.
By Aileen B. Flores / El Paso Times
POSTED: 12/09/2014 10:29:06 PM MST
El Paso City Council on Tuesday took action against companies that allegedly underpaid employees in the construction of Sun Metro’s bus operations and maintenance facility on the East Side.
Council voted unanimously to withhold $35,400 in payment to the contractor, Urban Associates, until an investigation is complete into one of the subcontractors, Beltran Electrical Contractors, Inc. The investigation regards possible violations of prevailing wage rates.
The contractor has 15 days to resolve the issue. If the problem is not resolved between the subcontractor and the workers, then the dispute must be submitted to arbitration, city documents show. Council also approved to report the case to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Urban Associates was awarded a $27.4 million contract in 2012. The company then subcontracted Beltran.
By Scott Braddock on Mon, 12/08/2014 – 12:49pm
Far too often, construction companies cheat taxpayers and their workers by pretending their employees are independent subcontractors when, by law, they should be paid as employees. It’s a practice known as worker misclassification. Some ethical contractors have called it a “cancer that is eating at the heart of our industry.”
If a person is paid as a subcontractor, that individual is on the hook for payroll taxes and benefits like health insurance. When they’re injured, uninsured workers are often dropped off at county hospitals and the rest of us end up paying more in health costs and local property taxes.
Construction Citizen’s Special Report, “Thrown Away People,” outlined many of the problems presented to society by the degradation of the employer – employee relationship. The McClatchy Newspaper chain this year followed up with a powerful series called “Contract to Cheat,” which took another in-depth look at the problem.
By Josefa Velasquez
5:47 p.m. | Dec. 8, 2014
ALBANY-State Senator Jeff Klein, who leads the Independent Democratic Conference, has proposed a two-pronged program to use the state’s $5 billion windfall from bank settlements for a modern-day version of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Klein’s “New Deal for New York” would use part of the bank settlement money to create a new program called Empire Public Works, dedicated to upgrading the state’s infrastructure.
In an interview with Capital, Klein said the infrastructure projects in the program would be required to pay prevailing wages, which would apply to agencies like the M.T.A., housing authorities, and bridge and tunnel authorities, which don’t always pay prevailing wages.
“It’s money that I believe was stolen from the taxpayers from financial institutions accused of financial crimes against New Yorkers,” he said in a phone interview, adding, “It certainly makes sense that this infusion of cash go right back in to the pockets of hardworking New Yorkers.”
Syracuse, N.Y. – A Syracuse area contractor has been ordered to pay $380,000 in back wages to more than 300 drywall installers that federal officials said were misclassified as independent contractors.
The U.S. Department of Labor sued General Interior Systems Inc., of Clay, in U.S. District Court in Syracuse in 2008, alleging the company misclassified employees to avoid paying overtime and other benefits.
GIS and its owner and president, Jeffrey Mento, admitted to the misclassification and agreed to pay back wages in a settlement with the DOL in August last year.
DOL spokesman Ted Fitzgerald said the department was making the settlement public now to highlight the issue of misclassification and to seek the public’s help in finding the employees who are owed the back wages. Some of the 300 workers have moved and left no forwarding address, he said.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DECEMBER 4, 2014
(New York, NY) Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peters announced today the arrests and indictments of a contractor and two labor brokers overseeing New York City School Construction Authority (SCA) and Housing Authority (NYCHA) projects for allegedly underpaying construction workers. The arrests stem from a joint investigation into underpayment and kickback schemes on projects at P.S. 196K, a public school in Brooklyn, and the Pomonok Houses Project in Queens. As alleged in two indictments, several workers were deprived of several thousand dollars each from the alleged schemes. If convicted on the top counts, each defendant faces up to seven years in prison.
“Contractors who work on public projects cannot ignore New York State’s labor laws in order to line their own pockets,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “In this case and many others, my office is taking aggressive action, including criminal prosecution when appropriate, to ensure that workers are paid the wages they’ve earned.”
“Not only does prevailing wage fraud deprive honest workers of fair pay, but it is a gateway to other schemes that endanger public safety. Exposing and putting an end to prevailing wage fraud is a cornerstone of DOI’s multi-pronged effort to combat corruption in New York City construction. I thank the Attorney General and his staff for their partnership on these important cases,” New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peters said.
U.S. Department of Labor
Wage and Hour Division
Release Number: 14-2069-CHI
Date: December 2, 2014
MINOT, N.D. — An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that load operators at three Watco Terminal & Port Services’ locations in Belfield, Stanley and Tioga were not paid for pre-shift work, as required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Watco will pay 261 workers a total of $304,094 in overtime back wages.
“People must be compensated for all time on the job, including before and after a shift,” said Charles Frasier, district director for the Wage and Hour Division in Denver. “We hope other local employers take note of this case and ensure they are paying their workers properly.”
The investigation found that employees were not compensated for required attendance at pre-shift safety and turnover meetings. Another overtime violation occurred when Watco failed to compute overtime properly. The company also failed to maintain accurate records of all hours worked.
By Ryan Murphy
November 25, 2014, 9:43 PM | ISLE OF WIGHT
Isle of Wight County Schools will pay backpay for hundreds of workers on a school construction job in Windsor who were shorted after the school system failed to include federal wage requirements in contract documents.
The move comes seven months after a Daily Press investigation revealed that the school system had appeared to violate federal law by failing to include the pay rate clauses. The school system used $7.5 million in federally subsidized bonds for the job, which came with strings attached, including paying workers on a pay scale based on local prevailing wages.
Larino Masonry Inc. and owners debarred from bidding on federal contracts
U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
Release Number: 14-2057-NEW, Date: Nov. 25, 2014
NEW YORK — The U.S. Department of Labor has secured $2,904,000 in back wages for laborers and mechanics who worked on federally funded construction projects in four New York City boroughs.
A federal administrative law judge approved a settlement requiring Larino Masonry Inc., based in Newark, New Jersey, to pay $1,945,000 in back wages to workers at projects in Manhattan and the Bronx for violating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts and the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act. In a separate, but related case, Larino also agreed to an order to pay $959,000 to workers at projects in Brooklyn and Queens.
Larino admitted that it failed to pay its workers the legally required prevailing wage, fringe benefits and overtime, and submitted falsified certified payrolls to a contracting agency. In addition to paying back wages, Larino and its company president Juan Luis Larino and vice president Maria Larino have been barred from bidding on federal contracts for the next three years.
“Taxpayers should expect that federal contractors understand their obligations and comply with the law,” said Maria Rosado, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s New York City District Office, which investigated the federally funded projects. “When Larino Masonry or any other employer violates labor laws, they cheat their employees and gain an unfair advantage over employers who obey the law. We will hold them accountable.”
1:23 PM, NOVEMBER 20, 2014
Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the conviction and sentencing of Leonid Fridman for failing to pay legally required wages to his workers on a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey construction project.
Fridman pled guilty to the felony crimes of grand larceny in the second degree and violation of prevailing wage requirements of New York State Labor Law. As a condition of the plea, Fridman agreed to pay $200,000 in restitution to underpaid workers and prohibition from working on public works projects for five years. Fridman was sentenced to five years of probation.
“Mr. Fridman is being held accountable for stealing wages from workers who renovated parts of JFK,” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “My office will continue to take strong action, including filing criminal charges, against employers who violate New York’s labor laws, steal taxpayer dollars and violate the public trust.”
Based upon court filings and statements in court, Fridman, 60, owned and operated Millennium Commercial Corp., a Brooklyn-based company that performed tile work.