Coakley
BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has barred a New Hampshire construction company from bidding or contracting for any new public projects in the state for six months as a result of misclassifying its workers.
All-Pro Construction Management LLC, based in Hudson, N.H., and owners Sylvain A. Micahud and Bill Poulin, were alleged by Coakley to have misclassified workers as independent contractors on construction projects in Framingham, Newton, Boston, Needham and UMass/Lowell.
The defendants were also cited for failure to make timely payment of wages, failure to submit true and accurate certified payroll records on public construction projects and failure to maintain true and accurate general payroll records.
In addition to the six-month debarment, the defendants will pay a $25,000 penalty to the state for the violations.
"It is important that businesses that don't play by the rules are held accountable to ensure that the Commonwealth is not deprived of revenues due to misclassification of workers," Coakley said.
"Our Office is committed to safeguard the rights of all workers throughout the Commonwealth."
The debarment stems from an investigation that followed a complaint received by Coakley's office in November that alleged All-Pro Construction had misclassified employees.
Coakley's Fair Labor Division investigated, discovering that All-Pro Construction's employees were being paid half of their weekly wages by payroll check and half at the end of the month with a company check that did not deduct taxes.
The investigation also determined that, between Jan. 1, 2008-Jan. 22, 2010, the defendants submitted inaccurate certified payroll records to five different Massachusetts contract awarding authorities. The defendants stated that they were paying their employees all wages weekly.
Massachusetts' Employee Mislcassification Law ensures that any individual performing any service is considered an employee unless the individual is from from control and direction in connection with the performance of the service, the service is performed outside the usual course of the business of the employer, and the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business of the same nature as that involved in the service performed.