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The Aftermath: Developments from the 2022 Session of the Connecticut General Assembly Affecting Employers

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

June 22, 2022
JD Supra

The 2022 Regular Session of the Connecticut General Assembly concluded on May 4, 2022.  While not as groundbreaking as the two last full legislative sessions, and while many far-reaching bills that emerged from committee were not passed by the legislature, important bills regarding employee free speech (i.e., the much vaunted “captive audiences” legislation) and employment protections with respect to domestic violence were enacted. …

PREVAILING WAGE ENFORCEMENT

Public Act 22-17 (“An Act Concerning Wage Theft”) authorizes (as of July 1, 2023) the Connecticut Commissioner of Labor to issue increased fines and citations (i.e., $5,000 per violation) to contractors and subcontractors who violate the state’s “prevailing wage” laws. The Act requires the Commissioner to maintain a list of contractors/subcontractors that during the three preceding years violated the prevailing wage laws or entered into a settlement with the Commissioner to resolve such claims. For each contractor/subcontractor on this list, the Commissioner shall record: 1) The nature of the violation; 2) the total amount of wages and fringe benefits making up the violation or agreed upon in any settlement; and 3) the total amount of civil penalties and fines. The Commissioner shall review the list each year for the preceding rolling three-year period and may refer for debarment any contractor/subcontractor that committed a violation during this period. The Commissioner shall refer for debarment any contractor/subcontractor that entered into one or more settlement agreements where the total of all settlements within the period exceeds $50,000 in back wages or fringe benefits or civil penalties or fines. Any such contractor/subcontractor may request a hearing before the Commissioner to contest such a finding.

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Officials, developers: wage dispute due to “miscommunication” (CT)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Jordan Grice
Updated 4:06 pm EST, Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Bridgeport officials and developers of the new concert amphitheater are saying wage disputes over the project were due to miscommunication.

“Although it was never specified, the Harbor Yard Amphitheater, HYA, renovation was always intended to be a prevailing wage project,” said developer Howard Saffan in an email to Hearst Connecticut Media.

Tensions among construction workers building the amphitheater – the closed minor league baseball park – have apparently subsided, following confirmation that construction of the venue will, now, adhere to state law.

The Department of Labor notified the city’s economic development department this month that the project violated prevailing wage laws.

The prevailing wage statute requires contractors involved in big-ticket construction or renovations involving public funding use an assigned wage rate and DOL certified payroll for their workers.

A letter from state labor officials claimed that the contracting agency of the project – which according to the project contract is Saffan-failed to request a prevailing wage pay rate schedule or include it in the bid specifications.

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Harbor Yard Amphitheater workers seeking appropriate wages (CT)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Jordan Grice
Published 12:00 am EST,
Sunday, December 16, 2018

Construction workers building Bridgeport’s new concert amphitheater say they are being stiffed on their paychecks, and the Department of Labor agrees with them.

In a letter to the city’s economic development department, state labor officials said the contracting agency of the Harbor Yard Amphitheater – which according to the project contract is developer Howard Saffan – broke the law by not applying prevailing wage requirements when putting the project out to bid.

Saffan did not return several calls for comment.

The prevailing wage statute provides contractors for large-scale projects involving public funding with an assigned wage rate and scheduled payroll.

Bridgeport and developer Howard Saffan are splitting the amphitheater’s $15 million price tag.

That wasn’t the case when construction of the concert venue got started, according to the letter from the DOL, which stated that developers and the city failed to request a prevailing wage pay rate schedule or include it in the bid specifications.

“Looks like a 50-50 relationship; what you just read fits the classic definition of a public works project. Public funds are in place, it’s a public project that will benefit the public,” said Thomas Wydra, director of the Wage and Workplace Standards Division for the state Department of Labor

Both city official and developers should have been aware of the law, Wydra said.

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Wage Theft Charged At Farnam Court (CT)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

by ALLAN APPEL | Oct 6, 2017 8:35 am

A “fat cat” in a plush three-piece suit dangled and strangled a working guy in a yellow construction helmet on Grand Avenue the other day.

The cat and worker were 15-foot-tall cartoon characters full of compressed air and bobbing in the breeze. But the display was no joke no joke. The blow-up figures were deployed Thursday afternoon by members and supporters of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters (NERCC) in support of Terail Slaughter, a non-union carpenter who had been employed helping to build the tower buildings of the Housing Authority of New Haven’s Farnam Court Townhouses rebuilding project.

About a dozen carpenters and their supporters were on the corner of Grand Avenue and Hamilton Street for two purposes, according to lead organizer Ernest Pagan: to support a wage theft complaint, and to encourage other workers to step forward and make similar complaints when necessary.

The Complaint

Slaughter has lodged an $18,000 wage theft complaint against Palmucci Rivera Construction Concepts (PRCC), a carpentry subcontractor managed by Haynes Construction. The Seymour-based company is a general contractor on the $42 million redevelopment project of the 75-year-old troubled housing complex.

The complaint, which was filed with the state Department of Labor in mid-summer, documents that Slaughter, a nine-year veteran carpenter who had also been a starting guard at Wilbur Cross, was paid $14 an hour. The “prevailing wage” – that is, the nationally mandated wage for a carpenter in Connecticut working on a publicly funded project, is $56 an hour.

Slaughter began work in January 2016. In April he met Pagan, who had come to fact-find and organize. Pagan urged Slaughter to ask for a more appropriate salary. Slaughter eventually took the advice, and PRCC, without acknowledging wrongdoing, raised his hourly wage to $46.

That, however, is the prevailing wage for a laborer, not for a carpenter. This alerted Pagan that, in addition to theft of wages directly, PRCC’s move was misclassifying Slaughter into a lower-paying category than he deserved.

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Forum: Prevailing wage protects the construction industry and Connecticut’s economy

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Roland Lemar
POSTED: 02/26/17, 8:57 PM EST

There have been numerous legislative proposals introduced this year to alter the thresholds that trigger when the Connecticut’s prevailing wage law is applied to public works construction projects. Connecticut’s current threshold is $400,000 for new construction and $100,000 for renovation. That means that a public project must cost that amount for the prevailing wage law to apply.

If a project falls below that threshold, then workers only have to be paid the minimum wage rather than the family-sustaining prevailing wage. Connecticut currently has the second-highest thresholds in the country, and the highest by far in New England.

Those that have proposed an increase to the prevailing wage thresholds have indicated that their proposals will alleviate budgetary constraints on our municipalities. I do not believe that is the case. Further weakening of our state’s prevailing wage law will do just the opposite, and will further eliminate the kind of fair-paying, middle-class jobs that we should try to keep and grow in our state.

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Two economics professors at the University of Utah, Peter Phillips and Cihan Bilingsoy, conducted a study in 2010, titled “Impact of Prevailing Wages on the Economy and Communities of Connecticut,” which found that repeal of the prevailing wage law would result in the loss of $21.6 million in income tax revenue. Other studies have shown that every dollar spent on a prevailing wage project generates a $1.50 in economic activity – that’s money spent at local businesses such as restaurants and auto body shops. Prevailing wages keep workers off public assistance and allow them to contribute to our local economies – which is a good investment for our state.

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Prevailing wage: myth vs. reality (CT)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Published February 05. 2017 12:01AM
Kimberly Glassman

Governor Malloy has made a recommendation to raise the threshold as to when our state’s prevailing wage law is triggered on public works construction projects. Connecticut currently has the second highest thresholds in the country, and the highest in New England.

To those who don’t work in the construction industry, this controversial political topic seems wonky and confusing. But here’s how it works: Connecticut’s current threshold is $400,000 for new construction and $100,000 for renovation. That means that the prevailing wage law is triggered when public project costs those amounts. If a project falls below those thresholds, then workers only have to be paid the minimum wage. When Gov. Malloy proposes an increase to the threshold, he is proposing that more workers be paid the minimum wage rather than the family-sustaining prevailing wage.

The truth is this proposal won’t in any way alter our state’s budgetary woes. In fact, it will do just the opposite: eliminate the kind of fair-paying, middle-class jobs that we should try to keep and grow in our state.

One of the biggest takeaways from November’s election is that working families throughout Connecticut are frustrated with stagnant wages and a stagnant economy. Yet, instead of investing in job growth, the governor and some legislators have contended that middle-class wages, including prevailing wages, are too high. But before the public is again sold this recurring bill of goods, let’s break down some of their arguments.

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Battles Over Labor’s Wages Heats Up At Capitol (CT)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By KEITH M. PHANEUF
February 21, 2017, 6:08 PM

The clash over labor costs intensified Tuesday at the state Capitol.

While one legislative panel split down the middle over whether to raise Connecticut’s minimum wage, unions and their allies rallied to battle proposals that would allow communities to cut worker wages on public construction projects.

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And while the labor committee battled over the minimum wage, the Connecticut Building Trades Council, other unions and their allies rallied to block proposed changes to Connecticut’s prevailing wage statute.

Currently, municipal remodeling projects that cost more than $100,000 and new construction projects costing more than $400,000 must meet a competitive wage scale based on the regional market. Municipal officials say, though, that this standard generally reflects artificially inflated costs paid chiefly to unionized construction workers.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, proposed new parameters in January of $500,000 for remodeling work and $1 million for new construction.

House and Senate Republicans also have introduced bills to raise the thresholds.

“I just don’t know what’s wrong with this building,” said Lori J. Pelletier, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, who was referring to both the prevailing wage proposals and to the opposition to the minimum wage hike. “That’s not the kind of state that we are.”
“We understand that raising thresholds are not good for workers,” said David Roche, president of the building trades council.

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Collecticut: $6.5M in Back Wages Recovered Over Past Year in CT, but Much Work Remains

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Over the past year, the Connecticut Department of Labor’s Wage and Workplace Standards Division recovered $6.5 million in back pay for workers.  While the organization has stepped up its efforts since the recession, the amount collected represents only a percentage of the wage theft that occurs in the Constitution State, according to the Stamford Advocate:

A significant portion of the complaints – nearly 2,800 of them, accounting for $3 million – were from workers reporting that they were not paid at all. Another $1.2 million was distributed to workers who were not paid minimum wage or overtime as required by law. And more than $2 million was distributed to construction workers who were paid less than the state’s prevailing wage for government projects.

The Wage & Workplace Standards Division gets about 4,000 complaints a year, said the director, Gary Pechie. Most are from workers in the construction industry, service industries such as hotels and restaurants, and the transportation industry employing taxi, limo and tractor-trailer drivers, Pechie said.

“I don’t think people understand how tremendously workplaces have changed since the recession,” Pechie said. “There’s a lot of shenanigans going on.”

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Report: CT Healthcare Construction Most Active in New England

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on
Hospitals and other healthcare providers are spending more money on major Connecticut construction projects than in any other New England state, according to a study by Revista.
Ongoing and upcoming hospital and medical office building construction projects this year have a total construction value of $1.76 billion, the Maryland-based healthcare construction data provider said.

That’s ahead of Massachusetts’ $1.15 billion worth of ongoing and upcoming projects, as well as Maine’s $337 million and New Hampshire’s $124 million, Revista said.

Leading the way in Connecticut is the $450 million replacement of Stamford Hospital, which broke ground last year. Next up is UConn Health Center’s patient tower and $203 million outpatient pavilion, and John Dempsey Hospital’s $163 million expansion – all in Farmington.

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Conn. Contractor Cited by US Labor Department’s OSHA for Wall Collapse, Fall Hazards at Construction Work Site

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on
IRVINE – An Irvine construction company owner and his foreman pleaded not guilty Monday after authorities charged that they committed multiple acts of payroll fraud.
Mustafa Mohamed Bdaiwi, 41, of Irvine and Antonio Naranjo Jr., 40, of Costa Mesa have been charged with 11 counts of taking a portion of a employee’s wages, two felony counts of recording false or forged documents and sentencing enhancements for property loss more than $150,000, according to court records.
Bdaiwi, who owns Malcon Civils Inc., was awarded a contract from the city of Irvine to build a wall at an elementary school in late 2010, prosecutors said. Authorities said around the same time the company was also awarded a project by the city of Hemet.During these two projects, which took place from January to August 2011, Bdaiwi and Naranjo are accused of requiring workers to return a portion of their wages. Naranjo is suspected of threatening to fire the workers who did not comply, prosecutors said.

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