A win for the common people

[SunsetBengal]

I've seen many examples of this over the years, corporate companies using outsourced labor to perform the same duties as union scale company employees.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/dc-attorney-general-sues-companies-for-denying-hundreds-of-construction-workers-pay-benefits/ar-BB1oAUfe?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=fcc299435c54446f854eaa67316c2eec&ei=34

Quote:WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb filed a lawsuit against five companies for depriving hundreds of construction workers of wages and benefits.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, alleges the Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, W.G./Welch Mechanical Contractors and three labor brokers misclassified employees as independent contractors in order to reduce labor costs.

In doing so, employees were paid less than D.C.’s minimum wage and denied overtime and sick pay to which they were entitled by law.

“It is unacceptable for businesses operating in the District of Columbia to boost their profits by stealing from workers,” said Attorney General Schwalb, in part, in a news release. “Welch and its subcontractors—labor brokers that provide low-cost workers to trade contractors—tried to cut corners and reduce costs by illegally misclassifying over 370 employees as independent contractors, denying them minimum wage, overtime, paid sick leave, and other benefits they were legally entitled to.”
Welch, the company at the center of the lawsuit, has a significant presence in the District’s construction industry, according to the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia (OAG).

Through contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, Welch provided employees to install HVAC systems, plumbing pipes and fixtures and perform sheet metal work on projects throughout the city.

Among the more notable developments in which the companies named in the suit were involved was City Ridge in Northwest.

City Ridge consists of 360,000 square feet of commercial space and is home to the District’s first Wegmans as well as a 690-unit residential building.

The Washington Post reported that a group of workers sued Welch separately in 2022, alleging the company owed them back pay for their work on City Ridge.

According to the OAG’s complaint, payroll records from Welch’s subcontractors in 2022 show workers were paid below D.C.’s minimum wage, which was $15.20 at the time.

DC residents beat the heat in outdoor pools on Juneteenth
Ramirez Plumbing, Inc., for example, showed at least nine workers who were paid below the minimum wage in records from February 2022 to March 2022. The subcontractor also shows more than 40 occasions in that time when workers were not paid for overtime.

The four-count complaint alleges the companies are responsible for worker misclassification, a violation of the Workplace Fraud Act; failure to pay overtime, a violation of the Minimum Wage Revision Act; failure to pay the minimum wage, a violation of the Minimum Wage Revision Act; and Failure to provide paid sick leave, a violation of the Sick and Safe Leave Act.

The District is requesting a jury trial should the lawsuit proceed.

“Labor brokers and the contractors that employ them not only steal from workers responsible for building our city but exact an unfair competitive advantage over businesses that play by the rules. My office will always have workers’ backs and ensure that all businesses in the District compete on a level playing field,” Schwalb said, in part.

DC News Now reached out to the Whiting-Turner Contracting Company and W.G./Welch Mechanical Contractors, LLC for comment Thursday. As of late morning, we had not received a response