Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
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US Labor Department seeks to recover back wages, proposes debarment of construction contractor for labor violations at New York City publicly-funded housing project
NEW YORK -- The U.S. Department of Labor has taken legal action to recover $12,680 in back wages for 12 employees of C.J.L. Construction Inc., based in the Bronx, who were working on a public housing project funded in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
An investigation by the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division revealed that the company and its officials had violated wage, classification and other requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act on the federally funded Ciena Project, located at 30-324 E. 100 St. in Manhattan, which is part of the Metro North Rehabilitation Redevelopment Program.
In filing an order of reference with the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges, the Labor Department is seeking not only full restitution of all back wages due employees but also the debarment of C.J.L. Construction Inc., president Joaquim Moreira and manager Marco Ferreira to prevent them from working on future federally-funded contracts for a period of up to three years.
“On this project, C.J.L. misclassified cement mason finishers as cement/laborer workers and failed to pay them proper prevailing wages,” said Maria Rosado, the New York district director for the Wage and Hour Division. “In addition, the company failed to pay employees for all the hours they worked, failed to maintain required records of their employment, and submitted falsified statements of compliance and falsified certified payrolls. Needless to say, such flagrant violations of the law will not be tolerated.”
C.J.L. was a subcontractor to Lettire Construction Corp., which itself was a subcontractor on the contract awarded by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development to prime contractors Hobbs Ciena Associates L.P. and Hobbs Ciena Housing Development Fund Corp.
This investigation was conducted by the New York City District Office of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division. The back wages found due to the workers were determined according to the requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires all contractors and subcontractors performing work on federal and certain federally-funded projects to pay their laborers and mechanics the proper prevailing wage rates and fringe benefits as determined by the secretary of labor.
For more information on the Davis-Bacon Act and other federal laws administered by the Wage and Hour Division, call the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available at http://www.dol.gov/whd.
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