U.S. DOL announced April 15 that it recovered 34K in wages and benefits for 9 sheet metal workers of Day-Debut Mechanical Inc., under up-tier subcontractor, Titan Mechanical Inc., who were craft misclassified as laborers and underpaid the prevailing wage - with no tax deductions - in violation of the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts at the U.S. HUD / DC Housing Finance Agency / DC Department of Housing & Community Development-funded Paxton affordable housing project. The Wage & Hour Division also determined that Day-Debut had incomplete payroll records, submitted falsified payrolls and failed to provide required records, all violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Paxton development is a collaboration between developer, Foulger-Pratt, and Enduing Affordable Housing Corporation. The project's general contractor is Foulger-Pratt.
Titan Mechanical, Inc. of Manassas Park, Virginia, paid the owed back wages and fringe benefits after Day-Debut Mechanical was unreachable at the conclusion of the division's investigation. Titan had hired Day-Debut Mechanical to complete work on the project.
It is worth noting that in 2018, wage theft collective action 2018 CA 005406 B was filed in D.C. Superior Court on behalf of a group of former employees vs. general contractor Foulger-Pratt, LLC, drywall subcontractor Manganaro, and Manganaro's labor subcontractor, Genesis Contractors, LLC, alleging that the Defendants failed to pay workers the promised wages and overtime premiums for work related to the construction of The Modern, a residential building in NE D.C. The complaint alleged that while employed by Defendants on the Project, the Plaintiffs regularly worked in excess of forty hours per week but were not paid the required time-and-a-half overtime rate. Additionally, the complaint alleged that the Plaintiffs were paid nothing for certain weeks of work. Manganaro settled the complaint with the Plaintiffs and similarly situated individuals.
W&H adjudications of down-tier subcontractors at The Paxton was also not mechanical prime, Titan Mechanical, Inc.'s first run-in with the law. The U.S. DOL W&H division announced March 20, 2023 that they recovered $253,146 in back wages for 7 workers of Titan's subcontractor, Igloo Construction, Inc. of Westminster, Maryland at the DCHFA / DC DHCD funded 2442 MLK The Bridge apartments project in D.C., general contractor, McCullough Construction. In total, W&H recovered $633K in back wages for 84 workers of 6 subcontractors hired to work on the project, including $292,193 in back wages for 14 workers of MTZ Electric Service, LLC of Laurel, Maryland, under first-tier electrical subcontractor, Colonial Electric Company, Inc. of Harwood, Maryland. $53,451 for 7 workers of down-tier subcontractor M&Y Exteriors, LLC of Manassas, VA; $19,460 for 5 workers of Muller Construction, LLC of Springfield, VA; 10,051 for 45 workers of Allied Drywall Construction, Inc. of Washington, D.C.; and $4,728 to 6 workers of Diverse Masonry Corp. of Catharpin, Virginia rounded out the adjudications on this compliance market failure of a project which deprived work to law-abiding contractors with bona fide local hire and workforce development programs.
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