One of the newest high-rises in the Jersey City skyline is the subject of a new complaint from the state Attorney General’s office, as several labor abuses have been reported against several construction companies.
Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development filed a lawsuit on April 21 in Hudson County Civil Court against the builders of 88 Regent. Named as defendants in the case are general contractor Grand Street Construction, LLC (GSC) and five subcontractors: BWK Construction LLC, P&B Partitions Inc., Blue Star Drywall Corp, Drywall Builders Corp., and Williams Drywall LLC.
The 31-page complaint outlines how the companies “failed to properly classify hundreds of employees at the Worksite, [didn’t] timely pay the employees minimum wages and overtime to which they were entitled under State law, failed to provide State-mandated earned sick leave, and failed to maintain legally required wage and earned sick leave records.”
The state is alleging that general contractor GSC is liable for the labor law violations of its subcontractors and that these defendants must pay penalties because they failed to properly classify workers.
“Our state’s construction workers make enormous contributions to our state’s economy, and they deserve the full protection of our state’s labor laws,” said Attorney General Platkin in a statement. “Too often, however, general contractors in the construction industry rely on and benefit from subcontractors who take advantage of workers and deny them their rightful pay.”
This case began with a complaint about potentially unlawful conduct to the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Those entities then entered and inspected the construction site in July of 2021, when the development was still under construction, to investigate.
Besides the unpaid wages and benefits, the lawsuit additionally claims that the companies failed to make required contributions to the New Jersey Unemployment Compensation Fund, Disability Benefits Fund, and Workforce Development Funds. The filing also alleges that subcontractor Drywall Builders unlawfully employed a minor to perform construction work.
The lawsuit seeks, among other things, a judgment that the construction workers that performed the labor at 88 Regent were employees and an award of all unpaid minimum wages and unpaid overtime owed to these employees plus damages.
“We will continue to crack down on any business in New Jersey that turns a profit by shortchanging employees to gain an unfair advantage over competitors who play by the rules,” said Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo following the lawsuit being made public. “Construction firms that cheat workers out of the hard-earned pay they depend on will not escape our scrutiny.”
The new lawsuit against the builders of 88 Regent follows a $1.3 million fine that was assessed from last year, as reported by Hudson County View. Those allegations also included workers not being paid properly for overtime in addition to the builders failing to pay appropriate taxes on purchased construction materials and not carrying workers’ compensation insurance.
