Thaindian News

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) – A construction company was sued in California for violating labor laws and underpaying workers, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Livermore-based Country Builders, Inc. began to be investigated in late 2008 after some workers reported receiving a lower rate of pay than what was shown on their paystubs. The company had been falsifying their payroll records to hide underpayments, deliberately misclassified workers to reduce the company’s workers’ compensation premiums and violated state prevailing wage laws.

The company has won several public works contracts that required it to pay the prevailing wage, which in California is $32 to $34, equal to the wage and benefit rates established by the Department of Labor Standards Enforcement.

Between 2005 and 2008, 124 employees received less than the hourly rate on at least one occasion, while some employees were regularly paid less than the prevailing wage. Country Builders, Inc.’s officers subsequently falsified company payroll records to various public entities to cover up the underpayments.

In 2007 and 2008, it was estimated that Country Builders saved approximately $1 million in wages when in 2007 alone, the company’s gross revenues were $21 million. The company also misclassified lower-wage workers as higher-wage workers, illegally lowering its insurance premiums and underpaying the State Compensation Insurance Fund by at least $136,000.

Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. filed a lawsuit Wednesday as part of a continuing crackdown on companies exploiting workers.

“Country Builders cheated its workers out of wages and falsified payroll records,” Brown said. “This is an outrageous case about a company that took public money and then cooked its books to shortchange the state’s workers’ compensation fund.”

The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction against the company, restitution for the workers and the State Compensation Insurance Fund, and civil penalties.