Federal Court Approves Wage-Theft Settlement Concerning Construction of University of Maryland Regional Cancer Center
The United States District Court in Maryland approved a $800,000 settlement of a wage-theft case filed by Murphy Anderson and the Washington Lawyer Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.
Judge Matthew J. Maddox approved the settlement of the workers' lawsuit against The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., Centerline Construction Co., and Congratulations Construction Inc. The Complaint alleged defendants paid the workers below the required prevailing-wage rates for public-works construction projects and did not pay required overtime pay, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Maryland laws.
Centerline and Congratulations are responsible for paying the $800,000 settlement, with $100,000 paid as attorneys’ fees. The sum of $680,000 will be distributed to 15 construction workers and any other individuals who worked for the defendants on the construction of a new hospital. Each of the four named workers will also each receive $5,000 service awards for their work.
The lawsuit alleged that Centerline and Congratulations served as subcontractors to Whiting-Turner on the construction project. Because the hospital was a publicly funded project, the workers should have been paid $44.36 per hour under the Maryland Prevailing Wage Statute. Instead, the defendants misclassified the workers as independent contractors and paid flat rates ranging from $15 to $28 per hour and no overtime.
The Complaint alleged the workers were victims of a scheme that involved falsifying records. Defendants submitted prevailing-wage certifications with false names and issued paychecks at prevailing-wage rates to pseudonyms. Before the workers could cash the checks paid to their alter egos, however, the Plaintiffs alleged Congratulations Inc. confiscated the paychecks and issued new checks or cash paid at an illegally low wage rate.
A criminal proceeding based on the same scheme was brought against Mr. Marquez Rivera, the principal of Congratulations Construction Inc., as a result of a related investigation by the Maryland Office of the Attorney General. The Prince George’s County Circuit Court sentenced him to a 90-day jail sentence, five years of supervised probation, and an order to pay $291,333.07 in restitution.
The workers are represented by Mark Hanna of Murphy Anderson, and Joanna K. Wasik and Sarah L. Bessell of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.