Attacks On Prevailing Wage Laws Disproportionally Hurt Veterans

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Report Finds That As Hundreds Of Thousands Of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Enter Work Force, Prevailing Wage Greatly Improves Economic Outcomes For Veterans

May 10, 2016 – Posted by Frank Manzo IV

A first-of-its-kind study released on May 10, 2016 finds that prevailing wage greatly improves economic outcomes for veterans and that growing attacks on prevailing wage at the state level will disproportionally hurt the hundreds of thousands post-9/11 veterans who are returning to the workforce.

Exploring of the economic impact of state prevailing wage laws on veterans in the construction industry, the study was commissioned by VoteVets, the largest progressive group of veterans in America. The study was conducted by Frank Manzo IV of the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Professor Robert Bruno, and Colorado State University-Pueblo Economist, Dr. Kevin Duncan.

“The data clearly shows that veterans work in the skilled construction trades at significantly higher rates than non-veterans,” said Manzo. “The difference is even more pronounced in states with average or strong prevailing wage policies-so any changes in these laws will have an outsized impact on those who have served in the military.”

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(PDF of Study)

(Copy of Summary)

Add your name: Strong prevailing wage laws improve the lives of veterans and military families

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

votevets.org

Many of the veterans who come back from war return to blue-collar construction jobs or open a contracting business that benefit substantially from prevailing wage laws. In 2014, more than 400,000 veterans held such jobs.

Prevailing wage is like minimum wage for skilled construction workers and ensures those veterans can provide a good life for their families. Overturning those laws would drive thousands of Illinois veterans below the poverty line and into a crippling spiral of debt. Our nation’s heroes deserve better than that from our elected officials.

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(PDF of Fact Sheet)

AG Healey Assesses More Than $326,000 in Restitution and Penalties Against Construction Companies in First Quarter of 2016

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Part of an Ongoing Effort by the AG’s Office to Address Wage Theft in the Industry

MAURA HEALEY, ATTORNEY GENERAL

For Immediate Release – April 27, 2016

BOSTON – As part of an ongoing effort to address wage theft in the construction industry, Attorney General Maura Healey has issued 29 civil citations against construction companies from January 2016 through March 2016, an increase from the previous two quarters. Restitution for employees of the various employers totaled nearly $260,000 and the companies were fined a total of more than $68,000.

“Wage theft is a real issue in Massachusetts, including in the construction industry where dishonest companies continue to cheat their employees,” AG Healey said. “Our office is working to level the playing field so that workers are paid fairly and contractors who follow the rules are not at a disadvantage.”

Violations in these cases included the failure to pay proper wages, failure to pay overtime, retaliation and failure to furnish records for inspection. For work performed on public construction projects in the state, the violations included the failure to pay the prevailing wage, failure to submit true and accurate certified payroll records, and failure to register and pay apprentices appropriately.

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Sacramento contractor makes $385,000 settlement over wages

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY DALE KASLER
MAY 19, 2016 9:29 AM

A Sacramento electrical contractor agreed to pay $385,000 in back pay to settle an investigation into its alleged failure to pay prevailing wages, the federal government announced Thursday.

Harold E. Nutter & Son Inc. will pay 58 workers a total of $385,000 and has agreed to comply with prevailing wages laws on future contracts, the U.S. Department of Labor said.

The department said Nutter failed to pay prevailing wages on seven federally funded construction projects, six in California and one in Washington state. Because the contracts were federally funded, the Davis-Bacon Act required all contractors and subcontractors to pay so-called prevailing wages, a threshold determined by the department on a community-by-community basis.

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Court Orders Payment of Government Contract Retirement Plan Contributions

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The DOL alleged that James Brunk and Brunk Industries Inc. failed to collect prevailing wage employer contributions for the employees’ 401(k) plan provided by government contracts for work performed by defendant’s employees.

By Rebecca Moore
April 22, 2016

The Department of Labor (DOL) has secured a consent judgment to restore of $95,000 to the 401(k) plan sponsored by Brunk Industries Inc. in Oakdale, California.

Based on an investigation by the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the DOL filed a complaint alleging that James Brunk and Brunk Industries Inc. failed to collect prevailing wage employer contributions for the employees’ 401(k) plan. These contributions were provided by government contracts for work performed by defendant’s employees under prevailing wage laws.

Instead, the defendants retained and comingled the contributions with company assets and used the funds for non-Plan purposes, in violation of the Employees Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California approved a consent judgment and order requiring the defendants to restore $95,109 to the 401(k) plan. In addition, the judgment removes Brunk as the plan’s fiduciary and appoints Lefoldt & Company as the independent fiduciary responsible for winding up the plan, including the distribution of its assets to participants. Brunk will pay $4,890 of the costs for this independent fiduciary, and also may be assessed a 20% civil penalty on the amount restored to the plan. The court order also permanently enjoins Brunk from serving as a fiduciary of, or service provider to, any ERISA-covered employee benefit plan in future.

(Read Court Order Here)

School Construction Authority General Contractor Sentenced To 96 Months In Prison For Long-Running Scheme To Deprive Workers Of The Prevailing Wage

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of New York

Friday, April 1, 2016

Earlier today in Brooklyn federal court, Muzaffar Nadeem, the owner of SM&B Construction Co., Inc. (SM&B), was sentenced to 96 months’ imprisonment, ordered to pay more than $1.3 million in restitution to the IRS, and ordered to forfeit to the government over $7.1 million in criminal proceeds, following his convictions on May 8, 2015, after a four-week jury trial, for mail and wire fraud, structuring financial transactions, federal programs bribery, making illegal cash payments to a union official, money laundering, unlawful monetary transactions over $10,000, subscribing to false tax returns, and multiple related conspiracy charges.

The convictions arose out of Nadeem’s leadership role in a long-running scheme to pay SM&B’s workers a fraction of the prevailing wage on projects funded by the New York City School Construction Authority (SCA), as SM&B was legally and contractually required to do. Nadeem’s co-conspirators Zainul Syed, Afzaal Chaudry and Irfan Muzaffar were also convicted at trial of various crimes for their participation in this scheme. Muzaffar was previously sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, and Chaudry was previously sentenced time served, following approximately ten months of imprisonment. Syed is awaiting sentencing. The sentencing proceedings were held before U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan.

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LaGrange: ‘Prevailing wage’ laws need rigorous enforcement

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By: LIBN Staff
March 18, 2016

It was a successful and well-attended event and, other than the people who attended, no one knew it happened.

On March 8, 2016, hundreds attended a Public Works Symposium at the Huntington Hilton organized by Laborers Local 66 and Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust. In attendance were responsible builders and contractors, union officials, lawyers and government officials. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas gave remarks as well as staff from Suffolk District Attorney Tom Spota’s office. The focal point of this all-day event was enforcing the prevailing wage.

Prevailing wages are the pay rates set by law for work on public work projects. This applies to all laborers, workers or mechanics employed under a public work contract. The Bureau of Public Works administers Articles 8 and 9 of the New York State Labor Laws where Article 8 covers public construction. First created by the Federal Davis-Bacon Act, all publicly funded construction contracts over a certain amount must pay workers on-site no less than the locally set prevailing wage. This standard was established to prevent public works projects from destabilizing the local construction industry and to advance workforce development as well as eliminate the age-old race to the bottom.

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NIH Contractor Accused of Underpaying Workers Agrees to Settlement

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In a related case, a subcontractor for the company admitted to hiring illegal aliens for demolition work at the Bethesda research center

BY ANDREW METCALF
Published: 2016.02.22 11:00
Federal prosecutors announced Monday that a Washington, D.C., construction and cleaning firm has agreed to pay at least $450,000 to settle a case in which it was accused by whistleblowers of not paying its workers legally required wages while they were working at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda.

…

The settlement stemmed out of a larger case in which multiple construction firms were accused by electricians and other employees of underpaying their workers, but then telling the federal government they were adhering to prevailing wage requirements as required by their federal contracts.

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New Study: Prevailing Wage Law Would Boost New Hampshire Jobs, the State Economy, and In-State Contractors

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January 14, 2016
A new study released today by leading national researchers on the construction industry finds that a proposed New Hampshire prevailing wage law would boost the state economy by at least $300 million, create several thousand jobs, and increase state and local tax revenue by up to $17 million.

The report, published by the Keystone Research Center (KRC), an independent non-partisan economic policy group, was released in advance of hearings in Concord next week on the proposed prevailing wage law. New Hampshire is the only state in New England and the Northeast that does not have such a law.

The study uses a growing body of peer reviewed research, data from the Economic Census of Construction, and industry-standard IMPLAN software to analyze the impact of prevailing wage standards for skilled construction industry trades on the New Hampshire economy as a whole and on construction workers’ wages, benefits and reliance on taxpayer-funded public benefit programs.

(PDF of Press Release)

(PDF Copy of Full Study)

Kentucky House panel defeats prevailing wage exemption bill

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By Bruce Schreiner | Updated Feb 4, 2014

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – Cheered on by a roomful of union construction workers, a Kentucky House committee on Thursday defeated a Republican-backed bill to exempt public school projects from the state’s prevailing wage.

The arguments and outcome echoed past years when Senate Republicans made the prevailing-wage exemption a top priority, only to watch it stall in the Democratic-led House.

Republican Sen. Wil Schroder, the bill’s lead sponsor this year, said the issue will certainly resurface next year when the General Assembly’s political dynamics could be changed

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