Chicago Sun Times – By Mitch Dudek Sept 2, 2022
Drive Construction allegedly funneled payments to carpenters through sham subcontractors to pay less than what the state’s overtime and prevailing wage laws require
A Bridgeview-based construction company is accused of wage theft and using an elaborate scheme to underpay dozens of union carpenters, according to a lawsuit filed by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office.
Between 2015 and 2020, Drive Construction Inc. obtained contracts for public works projects in the Chicago area, such as schools and public housing apartments, worth nearly $40 million, according to the lawsuit. The contracts required Drive to pay its carpenters, who are represented by the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council, Illinois-mandated prevailing wages.
But Drive funneled payments to carpenters through sham subcontractors to pay the carpenters less than what the state’s overtime and prevailing wage laws require and to dodge the cost of other legally required benefits and protections, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court.
“Drive passed money through two layers of sham subcontractors before using its construction foremen to distribute those payments to workers on Drive’s projects as a flat, per-week payment,” the suit alleges. “This multitiered funneling of wage payments enabled Drive to make it look like the workers were not Drive’s employees — when, in fact and by law, they were.”
Payments were typically made in cash or by money order to avoid traceability and did not reflect the overtime and prevailing wage rates that they should have, according to the suit.