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California Labor Commissioner Collects Over $2.6 Million in Wages for 100 Workers on a Public Works Project

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

CA Dept. of Industrial Relations | NEWS RELEASE
Release Number: 2021-122
Date: December 16, 2021

Long Beach— The Labor Commissioner’s Office collected $2,631,876 in wages and $37,672 in apprenticeship training funds resulting from a prevailing wage assessment against Torrance-based general contractor TOBO Construction, Inc. The wages collected will compensate 100 workers for unpaid prevailing wages and overtime while working on a construction project on El Camino Community College’s campus in Torrance.

“Contractors on publicly-funded construction projects must pay workers a prevailing wage,” said Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower. “TOBO Construction, Inc. cheated these workers out of millions of dollars in pay and benefits.”

El Camino Community College District hired TOBO Construction, Inc., a general building, engineering and electrical contractor, as prime contractor to build a $35 million Student Services Center building. Workers hired included bricklayers, carpenters, drywall installers, laborers, ironworkers, steel framers and other trades workers.

The Labor Commissioner’s Office opened its investigation in May 2018 after receiving a report of public works violations from the Carpenters Contractors Cooperation Committee and the Painters and Allied Trades Compliance Administrative Trust. The investigation included interviews with over 40 workers and an audit of payroll records, which were turned over only after the investigators served subpoenas on TOBO Construction, Inc.

The investigation determined that TOBO Construction had maintained false payroll records over a 31-month period to cover up the wage theft. The contractor hired brokers to provide staffing for the construction project, and those brokers paid the workers in cash or personal checks $100 to $160 per day. Investigators reviewed thousands of falsified checks that were not issued to workers, many of them signed by the same person.

Additionally, investigators found that TOBO Construction failed to comply with apprenticeship requirements for a public works project. TOBO Construction failed to provide contract award information to all applicable apprenticeship committees, and failed to hire apprentices in the required ratio of one hour of apprentice work for every five hours performed by journeypersons in the applicable craft or trade.

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Wage Theft in Downtown Worcester AGAIN! (MA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

15 Jan, 2019
in Uncategorized by Kevin

This just isn’t right. Why are we seeing wage theft in downtown Worcester AGAIN! Worcester is in a renaissance we’re told, but many of the carpenters who are building the new Worcester continue to be victims of illegal business practices on high profile projects.

The stolen wages occurred at the historic Central Building at 332 Main St. This is a publicly supported project that has millions of dollars in public assistance. A partial listing of funding as recorded by the Worcester Telegram and Gazette begins, “MassHousing is providing a $3.7 million permanent loan and $1.4 million in workforce housing funding from the agency’s $100 million Workforce Housing Initiative. The project also received approximately $12 million through an allocation of federal and state low-income housing tax credits by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, more than $3 million in direct affordable housing funding from DHCD, $1.2 million in HOME funds from Worcester, and approximately $5.3 million through allocations of federal and state historic tax credits.” (Worcester T&G – $5.1M financing deal for Central Building in Worcester 5/7/2016)

With this much public resources and taxpayer dollars you would expect this to be an exemplary project.

Sadly, Dellbrook Construction hired Nayelie Drywall, which is registered both as a Hartford, CT or Holyoke, MA subcontractor. Nayelie then stole wages from two non-union carpenters. After not receiving the money they were owed, these two Latino non-union carpenters came forward to the Carpenters Union for help.

“Worcester needs to stay vigilant in efforts to prevent wage theft. We’re willing to take on the Dellbrooks and Nayelie Drywall, but we’re hoping the Worcester City Council can pass a wage theft ordinance to help end the exploitation of workers in our City.”
Dave Minasian, Business Agent – Carpenters Local 336

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Massachusetts contractor to pay $100,000 for alleged wage law violations (MA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

by Mark Iandolo |
Aug. 16, 2017, 8:47am

BOSTON (Legal Newsline) – Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced Aug. 8 that Wilmington Wiring Corporation (WWC) and owner John Garrett will pay more than $100,000 after allegations of intentionally failing to properly pay employees working on a public project for the city of Worcester to repair streetlights.
Healey’s office cited the defendants with failure to pay the prevailing wage, failure to furnish payroll records, and failure to furnish certified payroll records to the Attorney General’s Office.

According to Healy, the defendants failed to pay six employees the right wages on the public works project. Massachusetts has a prevailing wage law mandating that contractors and subcontractors working on public construction projects need to pay employees a special minimum wage based on occupational classification.

“Prevailing wage laws ensure workers are paid a real, living wage and level the playing field for companies that play by the rules,” Healey said. “Workers, honest employers and taxpayers lose when companies fail to follow wage and hour laws.”

Assistant attorney general Erik Bennett and investigator Tom Lam, both of Healey’s Fair Labor Division, handled the case for Massachusetts.

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Fair Wage? What repeal of the prevailing wage could mean for the construction trades (WI)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

TABLE OF EXPERTS
Aug 29, 2017

The Wisconsin Legislature is considering a full repeal of the prevailing wage statute, which sets construction wages for public projects. Proponents say it will save taxpayers money, but will it? And what are the potential negative impacts of a repeal? The Milwaukee Business Journal recently assembled a panel of experts representing the building trades to explore the issue.

STEVE BROAS (MODERATOR): THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF DISCUSSION ABOUT THE PREVAILING WAGE. WHAT EXACTLY IS IT, AND WHY WAS IT STARTED?

DAN BUKIEWICZ: That’s a great way to start this conversation, because you really have to go back to the beginning to understand what prevailing wage is all about. It started during the Great Depression. Communities were seeing a lot of transient workers coming into their communities to do work, and they wanted to protect their own local economy and workers. So, prevailing wage was started first and foremost to protect local workers. It established a rate at what it cost to do business and live in that area.

DALE POWELEIT: It started in New York originally. An Alabama company came up and starting undercutting local contractors on construction projects. The people in the community said that was not fair to the area workers, and they decided to go to the federal government, which passed the Davis Bacon Act in 1931. Wisconsin passed its law three or four years after that and other states followed suit.

JEFF MEHRHOFF: The Wisconsin legislation was modeled after the Davis Bacon Act and sets standard local wages. It is not a statewide standard. It is based on the average of construction wages in that area. Milwaukee’s standard wage is different than Madison and different than Appleton.

MODERATOR: HOW DOES IT IMPACT PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PROJECTS?

BUKIEWICZ: Usually, prevailing wage applies only if tax dollars are attached. In Wisconsin, it includes state projects and projects for the University of Wisconsin system. It does not apply to private projects, but there are responsible contractors who pay prevailing wages on private projects, because they want to do the right thing. But that is strictly their call.

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Lies surrounding Davis Bacon compliance land concrete contractor jail time

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

WHD News Release: 07/27/2017
Release Number: 17-1028-SAN

PORTLAND, Ore. – The owner of an Oregon concrete company that contracted with the federal government recently started a two-month prison sentence for lying to federal investigators. The crime occurred when he told U.S. Department of Labor officials that he had paid employees more than $93,000 in back wages that the Department’s Wage and Hour Division found the company owed its workers following a 2014 investigation.

The Department’s investigation revealed that Westwind Concrete had failed to pay the proper prevailing wage rates on a project in Tualatin in violation of the Davis Bacon and Related Acts, which applied because the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development financed the project. Westwind Concrete is based in Cloverdale.

Westwind owner Jeffery Hurliman assured the division that he would pay more than $93,000 in back wages he owed to 27 workers and later provided certifications that he claimed were from his employees attesting to having received back wages.

The Department’s Office of Inspector General investigated Hurliman after officials in the division’s Portland office noted discrepancies on the proofs of payment. The investigation revealed that the certifications were falsified and that when Hurliman learned about the investigation, he offered money to employees to lie to investigators.

The Department’s findings led to federal criminal prosecution against Hurliman and a two-month prison sentence. Hurliman agreed to a deal in January 2017 in which he pleaded guilty to witness tampering and providing false statements to the government, both felonies, and began his sentence on June 15, 2017. He will be on supervised release for three years following his release from prison on Aug. 15, 2017. In the meantime, the department has sued to prevent him from obtaining future government contracts.

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