Hawaii Tribune Herald
Published November 1, 2016 – 12:05am
The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said Monday it has assessed Tradewind Plastering and Drywall Inc. a total of $143,000 for violating wage laws on the University of Hawaii at Hilo College of Hawaiian Language Building construction project.
According to a written statement, $130,367 is for wages owed to construction workers with $13,037 added for penalties. Tradewind Plastering and Drywall was a subcontractor of Jacobsen Construction Co. on the UH-Hilo project.
The most costly of the violations was underpaying construction workers by misclassifying them as apprentices, and paying lower apprentice wages, with no registered apprenticeship in evidence. This was in violation of Hawaii’s prevailing wage law covering public works construction.