U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS PARTNER TO PROTECT THE STATE’S WORKFORCE AND ENFORCE WAGE LAWS (NM)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Agency: Wage and Hour Division
Date: February 11, 2020
Release Number: 20-21-DAL

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – The U.S. Department of Labor and the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to expand and improve the protection of New Mexico’s workforce, strengthen enforcement of wage laws and level the playing field for responsible employers.

The MOU will allow both organizations to work together to protect employee rights, defend law-abiding employers against unfair competition and maximize taxpayer resources.

“This agreement will help us better protect New Mexico’s workers and help the state’s employers understand wage laws and avoid costly non-compliance,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Evelyn Sanchez in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “Working together, we can more effectively identify those employers that deliberately attempt to unfairly gain a competitive advantage over those that comply with the law.”

The agreement will help both agencies communicate and cooperate more effectively and efficiently in areas of common interest, including cross training staff and providing employers and employees with information about the law. By doing so, the two organizations seek to protect the wages, safety and health of America’s workforce.

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Orange County DA to crack down on contractors breaking wage laws (CA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Heather Yakin
Times Herald-Record
Posted Jun 25, 2018 at 11:02 AM

GOSHEN – Lowball wages. Skimping on benefits. Fudging workers’ job titles. Paying off the books.

These are a few of the strategies unscrupulous contractors use to skirt New York’s prevailing wage laws on public projects. Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler says his office will crack down on the illegal practices this summer. Investigators will visit public-works job sites throughout the county to make sure contractors are complying with prevailing wage requirements.

“Prevailing wage laws are designed to protect workers from unscrupulous public-works contractors, so that those workers are paid a decent wage and provided with decent benefits,” Hoovler said. “Dishonest contractors, however, in an effort to make that extra buck, often illegally undercut the required prevailing wages and benefits, to the detriment of the honest workers that they have hired.”

In May, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office joined government agencies in the lower Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island in the regional Wage Theft Task Force. The task force aims to ferret out and stop employment crimes including violations of the prevailing wage laws that govern public contracts.

New York law sets minimum wages and minimum fringe benefits that contractors must pay and provide to workers on county, municipal and other public-agency construction. Those minimum standards are meant to be comparable to the wages and benefits generally paid to construction industry workers.

A contractor’s failure provide prevailing wage violates state Labor Law, and is punishable by criminal sanctions including fines, imprisonment, and a contractor being barred from bidding or working on public-works projects.

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Massachusetts settles with three construction companies that allegedly violated wage laws

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

by Mark Iandolo |
May 23, 2017, 8:52am

BOSTON (Legal Newsline) – Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced May 15 that three construction companies in the state will pay more than $600,000 for allegations of failing to pay the proper prevailing wage rate to employees for work performed on public projects.

“Our prevailing wage laws ensure a level playing field for contractors who perform work for public entities, including municipalities, schools, libraries and housing authorities,” Healey said. “When contractors skirt these laws, they not only cheat employees out of their wages, they undermine the competitive business environment of Massachusetts.”

The citations came against Ronan Jarvis, former owner of MC Starr Companies Inc., DANCO Management Inc. and its owner Daniel Tremblay, and R&A Drywall LLC and owner Allan S. Vitale.

Massachusetts state law mandates that contractors and subcontractors pay employees a special minimum wage determined by the state for any work done on public construction projects.

The Jarvis and R&A Drywall cases are being handled by assistant attorney general Erik Bennett and investigator Tom Lam, both of the department’s Fair Labor Division. Assistant attorney general Barbara Dillon DeSouza and inspector Brian Davies, both of the Fair Labor Division, are handling the DANCO case.

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