Labor Department investigating subcontractor on Trump’s Old Post Office project

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on
Drew Hanson, Digital Editor
Updated Jun 27, 2016, 10:18am EDT

The Labor Department is investigating whether a subcontractor working on Donald Trump’s Old Post Office hotel underpaid employees working on the downtown D.C. project, according to The Washington Post.

A Labor spokesperson told the Post the agency is looking into whether Brentwood-based glass specialist The Craftsmen Group was paying wages below those required by federal law on government construction projects.

The investigation was first reported last week by Politico. Workers on the Pennsylvania Avenue construction site, including one Craftsmen employee, told Politico that they and others were not receiving wages mandated by the Davis-Bacon Act.

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US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, VIRGINIA EMPLOYMENT COMMISSION SIGN AGREEMENT TO PROTECT WORKERS FROM MISCLASSIFICATION

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WHD News Release: 06/16/2016
Release Number: 16-1214-NAT
Participants: U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division
Virginia Employment CommissionPartnership description: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and the Virginia Employment Commission signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding intended to protect employees’ rights by preventing their misclassification as independent contractors or other non-employee statuses. The two agencies will provide clear, accurate and easy-to-access outreach to employers, employees and other stakeholders; share resources; and enhance enforcement by conducting coordinated investigations and sharing information consistent with applicable law.

Background: The division and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service are working with Virginia and 30 U.S. states to combat employee misclassification and to ensure that workers get the wages, benefits and protections to which they are entitled. Labeling employees as something they are not – such as independent contractors – can deny them basic rights such as minimum wage, overtime and other benefits. Misclassification also improperly lowers tax revenues to federal and state governments, as create losses for state unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation funds.

More information on misclassification and the effort are available at http://www.dol.gov/misclassification/.

Colorado Loses Millions Each Year to Businesses Misclassifying Workers

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By:ANNA BOIKO-WEYRAUCH

Colorado is losing more and more money each year to employers dodging mandatory unemployment insurance premium payments, according to a Rocky Mountain PBS News analysis. The estimated loss is about $23 million dollars a year since 2011.

Employers are required to pay the premiums on their employees. But, by labeling workers “independent contractors” – or unsupervised workers who make their own schedule and are not directed in their responsibilities – companies don’t have to pay.

The problem occurs when an employee is directed and supervised, but labeled an independent contractor anyway.

…

The construction industry had the highest unpaid insurance premiums and largest number of misclassified workers from 2011 to 2015, according to the analysis of state unemployment insurance audit data. Between 2011 and 2015, random audits of construction companies in Colorado found $1 million dollars in unpaid premiums and 3,433 misclassified workers.

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US LABOR DEPARTMENT RECOVERS $189K IN WAGES ON BEHALF OF 28 UNDERPAID WORKERS ON FEDERALLY FUNDED MANHATTAN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

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SJ Insulation debarred from future government contracts following joint enforcement effort with New York Attorney General

WHD News Release: 05/25/2016
Release Number: 16-0804-NEW

NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $189,000 in unpaid wages and overtime for 28 carpenters and laborers who worked on the federally funded West 131st St. Cluster Project in Harlem between April 2009 and April 2010. This was the result of a joint enforcement effort with the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in which the two agencies shared information and worked collaboratively on behalf of workers in New York. The attorney general’s investigation continues.

“Contractors on federally funded construction projects commit to paying their workers the required wages and fringe benefits when they bid these contracts. When, as in this case, they cheat their workers, they are also cheating the taxpayers who ultimately fund these jobs,” said Wage and Hour Division Regional Administrator Mark Watson, Jr. “As the resolution of this case demonstrates, we will not tolerate such illegal behavior.”

“We thank Attorney General Schneiderman and his staff for working jointly with us during the prosecution of this case. We have the mutual goals of ensuring that employees in our jurisdictions are paid and treated properly and employers who underpay their workers do not secure an unfair advantage over law-abiding employers,” said Jeffrey S. Rogoff, the department’s regional solicitor in New York.

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Sacramento, California, Landscaper to Pay More than $185,000 in Back Wages and Damages to Employees

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento-based Frank Carson Landscape & Maintenance Inc., doing business as Carson Landscape Industries, The Grove and TurfPro, has agreed to pay $185,270 in back wages and liquidated damages to 164 of their employees because of Fair Labor Standards Act overtime and record-keeping requirement violations. The agreement followed an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

Investigators from the division’s Sacramento District Office found that the company failed to pay time and one- half for hours worked beyond 40 hours in a workweek, as required by law. The company failed to maintain accurate records of hours employees worked before and after their scheduled shifts, and paid only for scheduled hours rather than actual hours worked.

“This investigation puts money back into the hands of workers denied their rightfully earned wages. This practice hurts not only workers and their families, but it gives companies that violate the law an unfair competitive advantage,” said Richard Newton, the division’s district director in Sacramento.

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OFCCP Proposes Rule to Collect Summary Compensation Data from Contractors in New Equal Pay Report

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

On August 6, 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking requiring covered federal contractors and subcontractors with more than 100 employees to submit an annual Equal Pay Report on employee compensation.  The rule will be published shortly in the Federal Register.

The data will enable OFCCP to direct its enforcement resources toward federal contractors whose summary data suggests potential pay violations, while reducing the likelihood of reviewing companies that are less likely to be out of compliance.  OFCCP will also release aggregate summary data on the race and gender pay gap by industry and EEO-1 category to enable contractors to review their pay data using the same metrics as OFCCP and take voluntary compliance measures.  By using existing reporting frameworks contractors already maintain in electronic payroll records, including W-2 earnings, and the longstanding categories and definitions that apply to the EEO-1 Report, the agency is avoiding costly new recordkeeping requirements and minimizing to the extent feasible the compliance burden on federal contractors and subcontractors.

The deadline for submitting comments will be 90 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.

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US Labor Department files suit against Northwest Title Agency to recover $230,688 in unpaid wages and benefits for 10 employees on HUD project

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. — An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has determined that White Bear Lake-based Northwest Title Agency Inc. failed to pay $230,688 in prevailing wage rates and fringe benefits to 10 workers, in violation of the Service Contract Act. The employees worked on real estate closings for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-owned projects in Minnesota.

“Contractors that do business with the federal government have an obligation to pay their employees the required contractual rates and benefits,” said Theresa Walls, the Wage and Hour Division’s district director in Minneapolis. “When employers fail to do so, the department will not hesitate to pursue legal action, including debarment, to ensure employees working on federally funded projects are properly paid.”

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US Labor Department investigations result in more than $415,000 in back wages for workers on Detroit Palmer Park Square HUD project

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

DETROIT — U.S. Department of Labor investigations have resulted in over $415,000 in back wages for more than 90 employees performing construction work on the federally funded Palmer Park Square affordable housing in Detroit. The investigations, conducted by the department’s Wage and Hour Division, were part of a multiyear strategic enforcement initiative aimed at combating widespread labor violations on federally funded construction projects in the Detroit area, such as affordable housing construction projects funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The investigations found that Malino Construction and several project subcontractors violated provisions of the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. The companies failed to pay prevailing wages, fringe benefits and overtime to construction workers on the project, failed to keep accurate time and payroll records for employees, and provided falsified, certified payroll records to the government.

Due to the extent and willful nature of the violations, Detroit-based Malino Construction, the prime contractor on the project, has been debarred from bidding on federal contracts for up to three years

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Construction Company Owner Sentenced for Fraud Conspiracy in Connection with Renovation of McCormack Federal Building

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Construction company owner sentenced for fraud conspiracy in connection with the renovation of the John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse in Boston.

Wael Isreb, 55, of Wrentham, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole, Jr., to four years of probation, including 18 months of home confinement, and ordered to pay $164,627 in restitution. In March 2014, Isreb and his co-defendant, Aluisio Dasilva, 67, of Hudson, Mass., each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and false statements.

Isreb was the owner of Taunton Forms, a now-defunct concrete construction company based in Lakeville, Mass. In September 2006, the General Services Administration retained Suffolk Construction Company as the general contractor to renovate the McCormack Building. Suffolk Construction, in turn, retained Taunton Forms as a subcontractor to perform certain concrete work on that project. Suffolk Construction ultimately paid Taunton Forms in excess of $1 million for its work.

Federal law requires that contractors on federal projects over $2,000 pay workers a prevailing wage, and that they submit weekly reports certifying the wages they paid their employees. Beginning in about December 2007, however, Isreb conspired with Dasilva and others to pay Taunton Forms workers less than the prevailing wage while certifying to Suffolk Construction, the GSA, and the United States Department of Labor (DOL) that Taunton Forms was, in fact, paying the prevailing wage.

States That Raised Minimum Wage See Faster Job Growth, Report Says

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New data released by the Department of Labor suggests that raising the minimum wage in some states might have spurred job growth, contrary to what critics said would happen.

In a report on Friday, the 13 states that raised their minimum wages on Jan. 1 have added jobs at a faster pace than those that did not. The data run counter to a Congressional Budget Office report in February that said raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, as the White House supports, would cost 500,000 jobs.

The Associated Press writes:

“In the 13 states that boosted their minimums at the beginning of the year, the number of jobs grew an average of 0.85 percent from January through June. The average for the other 37 states was 0.61 percent. Nine of the 13 states increased their minimum wages automatically in line with inflation: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Four more states – Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island – approved legislation mandating the increases.”

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