Ironworkers, Welders Recoup $6M in Wages (NY)

Some 500 ironworkers and welders will receive $6 million in wages and overtime pay improperly withheld by a Queens company. Matthew Chartrand, business manager for Ironworkers Local 361, said the settlement under which AGL Industries has begun paying the workers meant that ‘one of the bad players in the construction field is being brought to justice.’

By: RICHARD KHAVKINE / Aug 19, 2019

A Maspeth, Queens, steel-fabrication company copped to cheating hundreds workers out of overtime pay and wages, and agreed to pay out more than $6 million owed to welders and ironworkers, according to its plea deal with the state Department of Labor following a joint investigation with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

AGL Industries pleaded guilty to third-degree grand larceny and began paying 499 workers the money owed them with a $1.5-million allocation Aug. 13, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office said.

‘Bad Player’

The balance will be paid over five years in what is the largest single wage recovery in the DOL’s history.

The company also admitted to reporting fraudulent financial information and will settle through a $260,855 payment to the state’s Unemployment Insurance fund, the DA’s office said. A company official, Dominick Lofaso, also pleaded guilty to a class D felony for grand larceny.

Welders and ironworkers had complained to company officials about underpayment but were essentially told “tough,” according to the DA’s office. They then took their grievances to Ironworkers Local 361, in Ozone Park, and the DA’s office in February 2018. A subsequent joint investigation by the DA’s Construction Fraud Task Force and the DOL revealed that the company withheld overtime and other wages from workers during a roughly four-year period starting in November 2013.

Matthew Chartrand, business manager Local 361, hailed the settlement, saying “one of the bad players in the construction field is being brought to justice. Thanks to all-this is a great job for the benefit of workers!”

The DA’s office said the settlement represented a “monumental victory for construction workers,” adding that exploitation of construction workers is widespread despite that trade’s “treacherous” working conditions.

‘Landmark Conviction’

In the statement, DA Vance said the “landmark conviction” would restore “rightful earnings” to the ironworkers and welders. He said the Construction Fraud Task Force has returned about $7.4 million to workers since its creation.

“We are committed to fighting wage theft, which impacts employees across all industries, but is especially common in the construction industry,” he said the statement. He urged workers who believe they have been cheated out of earnings to contact the task force by text message at (646) 712-0298. Messages can be submitted anonymously.

The DOL last year paid about 35,000 workers nearly $35 million it had collected from companies that engaged in wage theft and public-works violations. The department has returned nearly $300 million in stolen wages to 280,000 workers since 2011.

“Wage theft and fraud have no place in New York, and unscrupulous companies who break the law will be held accountable,” Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said in the statement from the DA’s office.

(See Article)

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Manhattan Construction Company Misclassified and Underpaid Workers, Including Site Fatality Victim (NY)

By WorkersCompensation.com on July 27, 2018

New York, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) – Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., and New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”) Commissioner Mark G. Peters announced the indictment of CRV PRECAST CONSTRUCTION, LLC (“CRV”) and six of its employees for misclassifying workers as lesser-skilled, underpaying them, and falsifying information about payroll and employees, including a worker who was killed at a company job site. The defendants are charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with Insurance Fraud in the Second and Third Degrees, Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, and Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, among other charges.[1]

“Time and again, we’ve seen how wage theft is symptomatic of an overall disregard for workers’ wellbeing: On worksites where companies regularly defraud their employees, we have also seen them playing fast and loose with their workers’ lives and safety,” said District Attorney Vance. “As alleged in this case, the defendants devalued their workers’ livelihoods, underpaying them and insuring them for lower-risk work while simultaneously sending them to carry out complicated construction projects. Misclassifying workers as lesser-skilled is a common way that employers steal from their employees, and I thank our Construction Fraud Task Force partners for their continued commitment to protecting the workers who put their lives on the line every day.”

DOI Commissioner Mark G. Peters said: “These defendants stole from their workers on City construction projects, failing to pay the legally required prevailing wage and underpaying more than $400,000 in insurance premiums, according to the charges. In trying to skirt these laws for their own benefit, the defendants’ alleged conduct has instead landed them in handcuffs and facing prosecution. DOI thanks the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for its partnership in this case and our many joint Construction Fraud Task Force investigations.”

The indictment follows a joint investigation led by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s Construction Fraud Task Force and DOI, with additional assistance by the New York State Insurance Fund (“NYSIF”).

(Read More)

NY contractor refuses to pay for safety ad campaign after manslaughter conviction

By Kim Slowey | July 14, 2016

Dive Brief:

  • A New York judge Wednesday ordered general contractor Harco Construction to pay for a safety ad campaign as part of its guilty sentence for an April 2015 trench-related worker death, but a Harco attorney said the company will not comply, according to The Wall Street Journal.
  • A Harco attorney said the court-ordered, televised and printed English-Spanish public safety announcement campaign is a violation of the company’s First Amendment rights and would be equivalent to an admission of guilt.
  • Harco, which said it plans to appeal, was convicted last month of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of immigrant worker Carlos Moncayo, who was killed in a trench collapse on a Harco job site. If the company does not pay for the PSA campaign, it faces a maximum fine of $10,000.

 

Dive Insight:

The judge could have fined Harco $35,000 but instead chose the alternate sentence of the PSA campaign, DNAinfo reported. Harco attorney Ron Fischetti told the court that the company is innocent and that the blame for the accident should rest with Moncayo’s employer, Sky Materials Corp, which is set to go on trial as well for its part in the trench collapse.

(Read More)