California Labor Law Violations Total Almost $2 Million

Los Angeles, CA An ongoing quest by the Labor Commissioner for the State of California to eradicate violations under California labor law has resulted in almost $2 million in fines to three contractors plying their trades in the state.

According to a release from the Office of the California Labor Commissioner (PR Newswire [5/7/13]), the penalties relate to various California prevailing wage and apprenticeship violations associated with three public works projects undertaken by the contractors involved.

Those contractors were identified as: B.A. Marble & Granite Inc., which performed work on the DeNeve Residence Halls project at the Westwood Campus of UCLA; Phoenix Floors, associated with work undertaken at the Learning Resource Center at Saddleback Community College in Orange County; and Johnson Business Holdings, doing business as Production Plumbing, which was hired for the Global Green Generational (G3) Charter School at the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima.

All three were hit with wage, training fund and penalty assessments under the California labor code, stemming from three separate investigations by Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. Total fines equated to about $1.8 million.

“Let these enforcement actions serve as notice that wage theft - whether it be through nonpayment of overtime, failure to pay proper prevailing wage, underreporting of hours worked, bounced checks used to pay working people, and cheating on apprenticeship training funds - will not be tolerated in this state,” said Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su, who has vigorously defended California labor employment law since assuming office.

Looking at specifics, Production Plumbing was found to have willfully misclassified nine workers in an attempt to pay a lower California prevailing wage. The plumber was also found to have issued NSF checks to employees, and under-reported hours of work.

Phoenix Floors was found to have falsified certified payroll records, which is an affront to California labor code. Following an investigation, it was revealed that Phoenix Floors established a scheme whereby a third party, an employee, was paid 90 percent of the invoice amount and used that money to pay out wages to 30 workers, who were subsequently paid far less than the prevailing wage for the project. Among other citations, Phoenix failed to pay overtime.

Of the three California labor employment law cases, B.A. Marble & Granite Inc. (B.A. Marble) came away with the biggest hit following an investigation through the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, a division of the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR). According to the release, B.A. Marble was found to have failed to pay 55 employees proper wages under California state labor laws. B.A. Marble was also found to have falsified documents, intimidated their workers in an attempt to impede the investigation and failed to provide requested information.

B.A. Marble was a subcontractor brought into the UCLA project by primary contractor PCL Construction Services, Inc. Labor Commissioner Su ordered tile contractor B.A. Marble to pay $539,051 in wages, $4,693 in apprenticeship training funds and $652,600 in fines for the failure to pay 55 employees the proper wage.

“The Labor Commissioner has reinvigorated public works enforcement in the state,” said Christine Baker, director of the Department of Industrial Relations. Total fines and penalties in the California employee labor law case were $1,821,453.