Workers on Digi-Key project paid back wages after violation (MN)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By: Brian Johnson
October 1, 2019

At least three concrete workers on the $300 million Digi-Key expansion project in Thief River Falls have received thousands of dollars in back pay after a state agency found that a project subcontractor violated state wage laws.

In a Sept. 24 letter to concrete worker Franklin Flores, an investigator with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry said Flores’ employer, Millennium Concrete, was “in violation of state labor standards and prevailing wage laws.”

Millennium owed back wages for work performed between April 1 and Dec. 1 of last year, according to the letter.

A laborers’ union official who assisted the employees confirmed to Finance & Commerce that three affected workers each received checks “in the $8,000 to $9,000 range” along with the letter from the department.

Illinois-based McShane Construction is the general contractor on the Digi-Key project.

“While McShane is not aware of the number of workers involved or amounts due them, we are pleased the wage issue is being resolved,” McShane President Jeff Raday said in an email. “We mandate that all of our subcontractors comply with all federal and state minimum wage requirements, including compliance with prevailing wage requirements on projects subject to the Davis-Bacon Act. We are committed to fair compensation for each and every worker on our job sites.”

The Minnesota and North Dakota chapter of the Laborers Union International of North America and others raised concerns about potential prevailing wage violations on the state-subsidized Digi-Key project last June.

“We were happy to finally see it in writing that there were prevailing wage violations. This isn’t just us speculating on it,” Kevin Pranis, the union’s marketing director, said in an interview Tuesday.

Flores and the two other workers, Jairo Cruz and Walter Torres, filed a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights last week. The complaint alleged the workers suffered discrimination and mistreatment while working on the Digi-Key project.

Cummins & Cummins, a Minneapolis-based law firm, is representing the workers in the human rights claim.

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California passes AB 2358 aiming at discrimination & harassment in Building & Construction Trade Apprenticeships

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Andrea Matsuoka | October 24, 2018

California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed AB 2358, a bill that seeks to address potential discrimination and harassment in building and construction trade apprenticeship programs. While AB 2358 contains broad anti-discrimination language, it was designed to encourage women in particular to pursue building and construction careers, beginning with apprenticeships.

AB 2358 expressly prohibits discrimination in building and construction trade apprenticeship programs on the basis of enumerated categories including sex, gender, race, national origin, religious creed, and disability. AB 2358 also requires these apprenticeship programs to affirmatively promote equal opportunity in several ways:

  • Programs must include an equal opportunity pledge in their apprenticeship standards, publications and bulletin boards; incorporate equal opportunity policies into orientations and information sessions; and provide equal opportunity notices to contractors annually.
  • Programs also must provide interactive anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training to all apprentices, instructors, and employees and implement procedures for handling and resolving complaints of harassment or discrimination.
  • Programs must designate one or more individuals to monitor all apprenticeship activity for equal opportunity compliance and to maintain compliance records, in order to promote coordination and accountability.

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