Major national housing developer AvalonBay Communities has been exposed by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley for spawning a collection of law-breaking, misclassifying contractors on its projects around the state.  For the first time public attention has been directed not just at the lower forms of corporate life who often perform construction services, but on the buyers of such servcies who make it all possible.  AG Coakley deserves praise for adopting a common sense approach to enforcement - that when misclassification and other violations keep popping up on jobs owned by the same company its not an accident!  Enforcement can and should proceed accordingly.  Excellent!  Read the press release.

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:
February 25, 2009 Harry Pierre
(617) 727-2543
MULTIPLE CONTRACTORS TO PAY A TOTAL OF OVER $36,000 IN FINES AND
RESTITUTION FOR VIOLATING WAGE AND HOUR LAWS ON VARIOUS SITES
DEVELOPED BY AVALONBAY COMMUNITIES, INC.

BOSTON –Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office has issued citations against three
construction companies, and has also reached settlement agreements with two other construction
companies which performed work at several sites developed by AvalonBay Communities, Inc., a
national company headquartered in Virginia with offices in Massachusetts. The construction
companies violated the Massachusetts Independent Contractor/ Misclassification Law and the
Massachusetts Wage and Hour Laws.
Beginning in February 2007, the Attorney General’s Office received numerous
complaints claiming that workers were being misclassified as independent contractors on various
AvalonBay construction projects throughout Massachusetts. Investigators from the Attorney
General’s Fair Labor Division conducted field site inspections and issued records requests to the
companies performing work at the projects. The investigations and audits of the records
revealed violations of the Massachusetts Wage and Hour Laws. As a result of the investigation,
the Attorney General’s Office has taken action against the following companies:
• AMC Building Construction, LLC, its owner, Jocelyne Boduc, age 50, of Thorndike, and
the company’s manager, Richard Bernard, age 61, also of Thorndike, have agreed to
accept an unintentional civil citation, with a $10,000 penalty, for violation of the
Massachusetts Independent Contractor/Misclassification Law while performing drywall
and finished carpentry work at the Lexington AvalonBay project site. In addition to the
penalty, the company has agreed to a compliance plan, which will allow the Attorney
General’s Office to monitor the company to ensure its compliance with the Wage and
Hour, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, and employee payroll laws;
• National Carpentry Contractors, based in Connecticut and Tennessee, and its owner, John
A. Kirk, age 56, have been cited a total of $15,000 in penalties for violating the state’s
Independent Contractor/Misclassification Law and for failing to provide pay stubs to
employees while performing carpentry work at AvalonBay projects in Woburn and
Lexington;
• DaVinci Construction Company of Massachusetts, Inc., and its President, Arthur
Cipoletti, of West Bayshore, NY, which performed work at the AvalonBay project in
Lexington, have agreed to a compliance plan, which will allow the Attorney General’s
Office to monitor the company and its subcontractors to ensure compliance with the
Massachusetts Wage and Hour, the unemployment insurance, workers compensation, and
employee payroll laws;
• F.A. Construction, Inc., a Revere construction company, and its owners Francisco and
Miriam Antunez, were cited over $11,000 for violations that occurred while performing
framing work at the Lexington AvalonBay project. The company and its owners must
pay over $1,000 in restitution as well as $5,000 in penalties to the Commonwealth for
failing to pay one employee and failing to provide a proper pay stub to the employee in
January 2007 through February 2007. In addition, the company must pay a $5,000 fine
for failing to provide records for inspection to a representative of the Attorney General’s
Office in March 2007;
• C & K Sub-Contractors and its owner Chong Kim, of Fairfax, Virginia were cited $5,000
for failing to provide records for inspection to a representative of the Attorney General’s
Office for work performed at the AvalonBay Hingham Shipyard project. In August,
2008, the Governor’s Joint Task Force on the Underground Economy and Employee
Misclassification received a referral which prompted investigators from the Attorney
General’s Fair Labor Division and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and
Workforce Development’s Department of Industrial Accidents (EOLWD/DIA) to
conduct a joint site inspection. The Joint Task Force comprises multiple state agencies,
including the Attorney General’s Office and the EOLWD/DIA, which work
cooperatively to share information and prosecute fraudulent employer activities. As a
result of EOLWD/DIA’s initial investigation, a “stop work order” was issued to C&K
Sub-Contractors after determining that the company failed to have workers’
compensation coverage.
Workers who believe they may have been misclassified are strongly urged to call the
Attorney General’s Fair Labor Hotline at (617) 727-3465 or the Joint Task Force hotline toll-free
at 1-(877) 96-LABOR. More information about the wage and hour laws is also available in
multiple languages at the Attorney General’s Workplace Rights website:
www.massworkrights.com. Additional information about the Joint Task Force’s efforts to
combat workplace fraud can be found at www.mass.gov/dol/labortaskforce.
The matter was settled by Assistant Attorney General Joanne Goldstein, Chief of the Fair
Labor Division and investigated by Greg Reutlinger, Deputy Chief of Investigations of the
Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division.
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