NASSAU COUNTY, NY — An architectural and industrial metal fabricating company in Bay Shore was charged with a violation of labor laws in connection with misclassifying and underpaying workers on various public work projects in Nassau County, Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said Friday.
SIW, Inc. underpaid workers around $47K in wages, Donnelly said.
The company was arraigned Thursday for violating Section 198-a(l) of the Labor Law of the State of New York, an unclassified misdemeanor, the DA said. The company is due back in court on Feb. 29. If convicted, the company faces a fine of up to $20K, a conditional discharge and restitution of $47,004.04.
“Prevailing wages are important to ensuring that employees on public work sites throughout Nassau County are compensated appropriately for their specialized skills,” Donnelly said in a news release. “SIW, Inc. allegedly misclassified nearly a dozen employees as apprentices and failed to pay their rightful wages, underpaying the workers approximately $47,000. I thank the Nassau County Department of Labor and the Iron Workers Union, Local 361 for referring this matter to us for prosecution.”
SIW, Inc. pleaded not guilty and is represented by Cornell V. Bouse.
“The Nassau DA contacted my client, and I got involved pretty quickly, indicating that they may have inappropriately titled the duties of certain people on jobs,” Bouse told Patch. “I think it was an innocent error, and we’ve been going back and forth with the DA’s Office for months now trying to resolve it … Whatever errors occurred, innocent or not, were corrected.”
Nassau County Commissioner of Labor Christopher Fusco said Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Donnelly will “not tolerate any prevailing wage fraud or worker misclassification on a public job site.”
“These findings are a clear indication that anyone who violates these laws will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Fusco said.
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Between Jan. 1, 2019, and May 16, 2023, SIW, Inc., an architectural & industrial metal fabricating company in Bay Shore, misclassified and underpaid 10 journeymen the lower apprentices wage rate, investigators said.
The public work jobs took place at the Merrick Union Free School District, Baldwin Union Free School District, Lynbrook Union Free School District, Manhasset Union Free School District, Westbury Union Free School District, Locust Valley Central School District, North Shore School District, Syosset Fire Department, Massapequa Fire Department, and Mineola Fire Department, officials said.
The District Attorney’s Office said it confirmed with the New York State Department of Labor that none of SIW’s employees attended a Registered Apprenticeship Training Program, that the company does not participate in a program like it, and none of its employees were certified as registered apprentices with New York state. The underpaid wages for the 10 employees ranged between a low of $515.34 to a high of $18,964.29, prosecutors said.
While the correct Iron Worker Journeyman wage and benefit rate for the time period was between $106.20 and $108.25 per hour, SIW, Inc. only paid $53.04 and $78.11, investigators said. The company paid laborers wages and benefits between $42.99 and $68.22 per hour, instead of the state mandated rate of $69.96 to $71.20, officials said. An audit of the payroll records of SIW, Inc. determined that 10 employees were underpaid approximately $47,004, the DA said.
Bouse said the appropriate restitution is planned to be paid out to any of the employees who are owed.
“I believe we’ve reached a settlement,” Bouse said.
The settlement has to be effectuated through the court system, he said.
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