Trash Hauler Fined Over Wages
Update: This story has been updated to include comment from Brian Alexson, vice president of sales and marketing for E.L. Harvey & Sons.
Attorney General Martha Coakley has cited Westborough-based trash hauler E.L. Harvey & Sons $214,923 in restitution and penalties for miscalculating the prevailing wage for employees who worked on public works projects in 2010 and 2011, Coakley's office announced.
Her office said E.L. Harvey cooperated fully with the investigation.
Restitution was paid to 29 employees in amounts that varied from $44.71 to $28,728.96. The average was $6,462.86. Harvey also paid a civil penalty of $27,500.
Coakley said the underpayments resulted from an "inadvertent error" in calculating the value of health and welfare benefits, which can be counted towards the prevailing wage. Other benefits, such as vacation time, sick time and unemployment insurance may not be counted toward the number.
There is no set dollar amount for the prevailing wage. Rather, it varies from project to project, and is set by the state Division of Labor Standards.
Brian Alexson, vice president of sales and marketing for E.L. Harvey, said Wednesday afternoon that the company was relatively new to public works contracts in 2010 and incorrectly calculated the value of some health plan benefits when it was calculating the prevailing wage for employees doing curbside pickup in Hopkinton and Grafton.
Alexson said E.L. Harvey's attorneys reviewed had reviewed their original wage calculations and thought they were correct.
"That shows you exactly how confusing it can be, because they kind of missed it as well," he said.
He said the company wanted to pay employees what they were owed and did so.
"If we were calculating it correctly based on how the formula is written on the front end, we owed the employees the money," he said.
He added that the company is expanding its public business, and has re-trained administrative employees about prevailing wage rules.
Read more
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments