Federal Court Approves Cutting-Edge Wage-Theft Settlement for Baltimore School Construction Carpenters
The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland approved a settlement resolving federal and state wage-and-hour violations brought on behalf of a group of construction carpenters in Cabrera et al v. Tobar Construction, Inc. et al.
The lawsuit targeted a critical issue in construction workplace enforcement: prevailing wage violations driven by fraudulent trade misclassification. The complaint alleged that Tobar Construction, Inc., DC Construction, Inc., and CAM Construction Co., Inc. engaged in wage theft during the state-financed renovation of Baltimore's Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School.
Maryland law requires that public works construction contractors pay designated prevailing wage rates aligned precisely with a worker’s actual duties. The workers here alleged that their employers systematically misclassified skilled carpenters as “common laborers. The workers alleged that in reality, they performed demanding, skilled carpentry work on the school, which included building and removing multistory wood and metal frames for concrete foundations, walls, and floors. The complaint further alleged that by misclassifying the carpenters as “common laborers,” the companies paid the carpenters $27.20 per hour instead of the legally required carpenter rate of $47.24 per hour, thereby underpaying them by $20.04 for nearly every hour worked—and by even more than that for overtime hours.
Earlier in the litigation, on March 30, 2026, United States District Judge Ellen L. Hollander issued an opinion granting conditional certification of the collective action and approving notice to be distributed to eligible workers.
Judge Hollander approved a total recovery of $150,000 designated for the plaintiff workers, which includes $135,000 in pro rata unpaid wages and liquidated damages alongside $15,000 in service awards for the three named plaintiffs. Additionally, the court awarded $100,000 to plaintiffs' counsel, representing $92,500 in attorneys' fees and $7,500 in litigation costs.
The affected workers were represented by Murphy Anderson PLLC attorneys David Rodwin, Mark Hanna, and Julia Eger.