Thread: Controller reaches $1.2M accord with 4 firms on behalf of cheated immigrant workers

Controller reaches $1.2M accord with 4 firms on behalf of cheated immigrant workers

John Liu’s probe finds undocumented paid below scale on city funded jobs
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Sunday, April 8, 2012, 4:00 AM.

Another week, another rogue employer bites the dust.

In what is as much a part of New York’s urban landscape as the Brooklyn Bridge, one more dishonest employer has been found brazenly cheating immigrant workers — and will have to pay for it.

City Controller John Liu announced Wednesday a nearly $1.2 million settlement on behalf of the workers who, for years, had been robbed of much of their wages and benefits.

“ Ahora sí voy a comer. ” (Now I am really going to eat), said cheated worker Renato Garcés, 39, a slightly built Mexican immigrant.

Garcés says his three children, living in his hometown of Veracruz, can now have a better life thanks to the money he earned with the sweat of his brow doing masonry work for Mascon Restoration. That money was rightfully his, of course, but he would have never seen it if not for Liu’s investigation.

Mascon and three other construction management firms — JF Contracting, Promanagement Associates and Delcor Associates — had to shell out $1,178,323 to the controller’s office for failing to pay prevailing wages and benefits to workers as the law mandates on city funded projects. The firms were hired by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to inspect and repair the agency’s buildings.

Mascon also pled guilty to a felony criminal charge in a separate deal with the Manhattan District Attorney.

“The first thing for us was to do right for these workers who do dangerous construction work. They should’ve been getting $20 to $30 an hour but instead were being paid around $8,” said Liu, who made clear this kind of investigations will continue. “They were not getting a day’s pay for a day’s work and that isn’t fair.”

In 2007, a state Supreme Court judge ruled that workers are entitled to file claims for unpaid prevailing wages when employed on public construction projects regardless of their immigration status.

“This settlement sends a strong message that contractors working on city projects must pay prevailing wages as required under the law," Liu said.

“We are just emerging from one of the worst recessions in history and the recovery should benefit everyone not only the1%,” Liu added.

After three years of being cheated out of wages and benefits, Garcés will finally receive what is rightfully his.

This investigation was not easy. Liu said, it was “particularly egregious” because the contractor was telling the workers, many of them undocumented, that investigators were immigration agents so many would not talk to them.

“One day the investigators came and the bosses told everybody to take a lunch brake and leave the building,” Garcés said. “But they forgot I was in the basement and the inspectors found me, began to ask me questions and I told them how much we made, etc.

“That’s when it all started,” Garcés said with pride.

So pervasive is the workers’ fear of immigration authorities that only Garcés and two others — out of 10 to 20 cheated workers — have come forward to file claims.

“I want to tell my compañeros and all immigrants not to be afraid,” Garcés said. “I want to encourage them to denounce abuses, nothing will happen, this has nothing to do with immigration.”

During a press conference last Wednesday to announce the settlement, Liu, whose Spanish is certainly better than Mayor Bloomberg’s, encouraged workers in two languages to come forward and file claims by calling the Comptroller Bureau of Labor Law at (212) 669-4443.

aruiz@nydailynews.com

Controller reaches $1.2M accord with 4 firms on *behalf of cheated immigrant workers** - NY Daily News

I hope we plan to deport those who are here illegally and see that they never get another job in the US.

Originally Posted by judyweller

I hope we plan to deport those who are here illegally and see that they never get another job in the US.

No. I dont think they are going to deport anyone. Look at this guy. He is a regular little hero now. He will probly receive a key to the damn city next. Maybe a freaken Medal of Honor too.

Fines are good and all but not enough of a deterrent. A good mandatory lengthy prison term for those who employ illegals should be added.

Originally Posted by forest

Fines are good and all but not enough of a deterrent. A good mandatory lengthy prison term for those who employ illegals should be added.

Most employers will stop hiring illegal aliens the first time you put them in jail.
For those who don't we have prisons.
But they don't seem to like to put business owners in jail or prison because that often puts the company out of business and the city, county, state and federal agencies loose a source of tax money.
They like to fine them the most they can pay and still stay in business and pay their taxes.

EXAMPLE:

IFCO $20.7 million settlement for hiring illegal aliens

http://www.alipac.us/f12/ifco-$20-7-million-settlement-
hiring-illegal-aliens-133414/

December 20, 2008