Coakley
BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced on Friday that her office has reached a $66,000 settlement with a Rhode Island construction company over alleged payroll citations.
Lockheed Window Corporation and its president, Michael Kosiver, were accused of failing to pay the prevailing wage and not submitting true and accurate certified payroll records to proper authorities at 26 Massachusetts public works construction projects.
As a result of the settlement, Kosiver and his company will pay more than $56,000 in restitution to 22 employees, as well as another $10,000 in penalties to the state.
"In these especially tough economic times, workers on public projects deserve to be paid properly according to the law," Coakley said.
"Our office will continue to pursue businesses that fail to pay their employees properly to both ensure that all workers receive the proper compensation for their hard work and to ensure all businesses play by the same set of rules in the marketplace."
An investigation into Kosiver and his company began in 2008 after the attorney general's Fair Labor Division received complaints from employees who had installed windows at the Jeremiah Burke High School in Dorchester, Mass.
A self-audit by Lockheed found that the proper prevailing wage rate was not paid to 22 employees for work performed at 26 public works projects from Sept. 2006-Feb. 2009.
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. The Record Keeping Laws allow state agencies to monitor the spending of taxpayer monies on public construction projects.