BRIDGEPORT – A non-union worker at a construction site in Meriden recently left a voicemail for Mark Okun, general manager of Carpenter Local 326, that described illegal actions taken by the contractor there.
Okun, who is also a representative of North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (NASRCC), shared the voicemail with the Fairfield County Business Journal at a union rally outside Bridgeport federal court on Monday. The union members marched to City Hall following Monday’s rally.
The following is what the frustrated carpenter had to share with Okun: “Hey Mark, this is Johnny. I’m a former union guy and they gave me your number. They said you may be able to help us out. I got a whole bunch of guys, including myself, and they are not paying us at this place in Meriden. They’re not running the place by the book. I think it’s time for them to get what’s coming to them so at least the guys get their pay. We have been working here for a little bit. There’s about 40 guys. They keep switching up crews. I think it’s time for these guys to face the consequences for that.”
Okun, who was named to the state’s Apprenticeship Council by Gov. Ned Lamont last year, was among the 150 members of local carpenters and electrical workers unions who rallied Monday against what they call tax fraud being perpetrated by developers and their subcontractors at work sites in Bridgeport and all over the state.
“One of the reasons we are doing this is because of tax fraud across the state,” Okun said. “In a job in Meriden, a worker sent me a voice mail that said they were working on a job and what they do is running through crews of people. We’re helping them with a wage theft violation complaint.
“We’re up to $156,000 in what the contractor owes them. They have not paid them. The whole process is they take a group of people, they build a space and they don’t pay them and then they move on to the next group of people.”
According to former Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch – an IBEW and National Electrical Contractors Association lobbyist – the scheme being played out by the subcontractors is that the developer will award them a job. Then they will hire workers from outside the state, offer lower wages that will be paid in cash. Those workers will complete one part of a job, the subcontractor will then move on from them and hire another group of out-of-state workers and repeat the cycle. And sometimes they will not pay those workers.
“If you are not paying your workers – that’s wage theft,” Finch said. “In terms of tax fraud, I think what we are talking about is people paying their employment taxes. When you have a contractor who is paying his workers cash, he might not be paying into unemployment, he might not be paying into Social Security. He certainly isn’t paying into much of a healthcare system. So, you’re not paying your employment taxes. That’s fraud.”
Locally in Bridgeport some of the work sites that repeated the alleged illegal actions of the subcontractors include 440 John St. (the former SNET building) and Steelpointe Harbor.
“There are several jobs right here in Bridgeport and across the state of CT, there are so many jobs now that are not regulated because there are not enough people to police what’s going on,” said Dan McInerney, president of Fairfield County Building Trades and business manager of IBEW, Local 488. “God forbid someone gets hurt on the job they (some contractors) just cut them loose and there’s nothing for them.”
Legislation proposed
Lawmakers at the city and state level are working on legislation to address the “tax, or payroll, fraud” problem at construction sites.
State Rep. Manny Sanchez (D-New Britain), chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee, has sponsored two bills that have been reported out of the committee. One would address the number of wage and hour investigators at the state labor department and the other concerns a contractor’s responsibility for unpaid wages on a construction contract.
NASRCC Council Representative Miguel Fuentes testified to the committee in favor of the two bills.
Fuentes cited three recent Connecticut examples of payroll fraud at Steelpointe Harbor, a mixed-use project in Rocky Hill and an East Hartford hotel renovation where the Florida contractor was arrested by the state of Connecticut. Many of the companies shut down or arrested were from out of state.
According to a recent national study cited by United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America representative Matt Capece, up to 28 percent of the Connecticut construction workforce is paid off-the-books or misclassified as independent contractors, resulting in $146.5 million in lost state and federal revenue, $111.7 million in unpaid worker’s compensation premiums and $30.2 million in overtime wage theft.
The Bridgeport City Council is also working on amending an ordinance that addresses contractors’ employment and minorities, according to City Council Deputy Majority Leader Jeanette Herron, who spoke at the Monday, April 7 union rally.
“What several of the council people and myself are looking at is the old ordinance about employment and the minority business groups,” Herron said. “We are looking to tweak that ordinance. We’ve pulled ordinances from other areas such as Stamford and Westport and see how we can help this cause. With the pressure that the unions are putting on the developers, they’re listening. They’re starting to come to the table.”
