L&H Construction is the latest company to feel the heat of the Massachusetts Attorney General's office - and pay a significant price for violating state law. The company has long made a home with the Boston Public Schools, and has been the source of ongoing friction between DC 35 and that department. The company, according to the Attorney General, failed to pay the prevailing wage to 24 employees on a variety of projects around eastern Massachusetts, including the Patrick Lyndon School, the John Winthrop School, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. School, all in Boston. The company was also found to have lied on its "official" payroll records submitted to the owners of the projects. The bottom line: L&H and its owner Lillian Gately of Medford have been forced to pay $160,000.00 in back pay, and a total of $20,000.00 in penalties for the wage violations and the falsification of payroll records. The company has been debarred from public work for one year.
The DC 35 Organizing Department supplied a significant amount of information to state authorities during the course of their investigation.
The following is the official press release from the Attorney General's office:
THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
ONE ASHBURTON PLACE
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02108
(617) 727-2200
(617) 727-4765 TTY
www.mass.gov/ago
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA CONTACT:
September 4, 2008 Harry Pierre
(617) 727-2543
MEDFORD CONSTRUCTION COMPANY AGREES TO PAY NEARLY $180,000 AND
A ONE YEAR DEBARMENT FOR VIOLATING MASSACHUSETTS PREVAILING
WAGE LAWS
BOSTON – Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office has reached a settlement
agreement with a Medford construction company for failing to pay the proper prevailing wage at
various public construction sites in Massachusetts. Lillian Gately, of Medford, and her
company, L&H Construction, Inc. (L&H), have agreed to pay nearly $160,000 in restitution to
24 employees, as well as $10,000 in penalties for the violation. In addition, Gately and L&H
agreed to pay a $10,000 fine for failing to submit true and accurate certified payroll records to
the various awarding authorities for the projects. Pursuant to the agreement, Gately and L&H
also agreed to refrain from bidding on public construction work for one year.
In January 2008, the Attorney General’s Office received a complaint alleging that L&H
failed to pay the prevailing wage for work performed at the Patrick Lyndon School in West
Roxbury. The Attorney General’s Office performed an audit of the company’s payroll records
and investigators discovered that L&H failed to pay the prevailing wage rate to 24 employees
who had performed construction work on the project from March 2006 through February 2008.
In addition to the Lyndon project, the company failed to pay the prevailing wage rate to their
employees for work performed at the following locations: Waltham Housing Authority-
Chesterbrook Gardens; Cambridge Housing Authority-River Howard Apartments; Somerville
Housing Authority-Mystic View; Boston Public School Department–Martin Luther King, Jr.
School and John Winthrop School. The audit showed that the certified payroll records submitted
by Gately and her company to the awarding authorities did not match the general payroll records
of the company.
The Prevailing Wage Laws apply to all construction work performed on public works
projects in Massachusetts. The Prevailing Wage Laws allow all contractors bidding on public
works projects to enjoy a “level playing field” by standardizing the rate of pay the workers will
earn. A company’s failure to pay its employees the prevailing wage for work performed at a
public construction site can result in both civil and criminal penalties against the company and its
owner.
Employees who believe their rights have been violated are encouraged to call the
Attorney General’s Fair Labor Hotline at (617) 727-3465.
The case was handled and settled by Assistant Attorney General Miranda Jones, and
investigated by Inspector James Kelley, both of Attorney General Coakley’s Fair Labor Division.