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AG’s Office accuses Framingham companies of underpaying workers of public projects

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Zane Razzaq
MetroWest Daily News
Dec. 29, 2021

FRAMINGHAM — A Hollis Street construction company and its owners will be fined more than $540,000 over allegations they failed to pay prevailing wages to employees who worked on public projects at the Middleborough and Westport police stations, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

Superior Carpentry Inc. and its president, Fernando Barroso, and vice president, Felipe Drumond, were issued five citations by Attorney General Maura Healey’s office for failing to pay prevailing wages, not submitting accurate payroll records and falsifying records, according to a press release.

Another Framingham company, BPI Construction Management Inc. on 110 Mill St., also received a separate complaint from the office alleging it knowingly facilitated the submission of fraudulent payroll records.

BPI subcontracted the work to Superior Carpentry.

“These companies cheated workers out of the wages they earned while working on public construction projects and then repeatedly lied about it to the municipalities involved,” said Healey in a statement. “Contractors and constructions companies at every level, in every trade, are responsible for performing their work in accordance with the law. It is a priority of our office to ensure that workers are paid the wages owed to them.”

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AG: Leominster construction firm ordered to pay nearly $840,000 for violating labor laws (MA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Peter Jasinski
UPDATED: 10/31/2018 02:40:51 PM EDT

BOSTON — A Leominster construction company has been ordered to pay $837,341 in restitution and penalties for making illegal deductions from worker paychecks following the second investigation in less than three years of allegations the company was violating labor laws.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced Wednesday that Force Corporation and its managers, Juliano Fernandes, Anderson Dos Santos, and Claudio Cicero Da Silva have been issued two civil citations for failing to make timely payment of wages and failure to furnish payroll records to the AG’s office.

“Force Corporation and its managers cheated their construction workers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Healey in a written statement. “To build this case, our team documented the use of dozens of illegal tricks used by employers to steal from workers.”

This most recent investigation began after state officials received several complaints from the New England Regional Council of Carpenters.

The AG’s investigation revealed that Force Corporation has been regularly taking illegal deductions from employees weekly wages to pay for tools, safety equipment, and advances in what Healey referred to as a “textbook example of wage theft.”

The investigation also showed that Force unlawfully required employees to purchase their own tools through a company owned by Fernandes, one of Force’s managers.

…

The company was found in willful violation of federal labor laws and ordered to pay nearly $2.4 million back wages and damages to 478 employees in 2016 and $262,000 in fines for violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
According to an investigation by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor, Force Corporation created a separate company, AB Construction Group of Framingham, as a way to provide Force with employers but classify them as independent contractors. This misclassification led to the company failing to pay employees overtime and keep accurate time and payroll records.

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Arthur Butler has spent decades shining a light on wage theft (MA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Monday, May 30, 2016
By DAN CROWLEY

NORTHAMPTON – Art Butler knows a thing or two about wage theft and the misclassification of workers in the construction industry.

As an inspector for the former state Department of Labor and Industries in the 1970s and ’80s, and attorney general’s office in the ’90s, he’s been shining a light on violators for decades.

At 78, Butler is still roving western Massachusetts, interviewing workers at job sites and mining payroll records, continuing a decades-long effort to stamp out fraud and protect not only workers but also companies that play by the rules.

“There’s a lot of it out there,” says Butler, who has spent the last 16 years with the Foundation for Fair Contracting of Massachusetts, a nonprofit watchdog group that targets wage theft and compliance with public bidding laws in the commonwealth. “What we try to do is keep it honest.”

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