6 construction companies accused of using race-based pay scale: whites at top, Latinos rock bottom

By Brian Kates
Updated Thursday, October 15th 2009, 2:05 PM
Six construction companies are accused in a new state lawsuit of paying their employees according to their race - with whites at the top and Latinos at the bottom.
The suit filed by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Thursday says the companies cheated lower-paid minority workers out of $4 million in wages and overtime.
All six firms are controlled by Michael Mahoney, a contractor exposed by the Daily News last year after workers said his companies provided them with black market federal safety certificates.
Mahoney's companies paid white workers an average hourly rate of $25, while paying African-Americans $18 and Latinos and Brazilians only $15 an hour for the same work, the suit charges.

Since 2002, the companies short-changed dozens of employes at at least 10 construction sites, Cuomo charged.
Some workers were cheated of as much as $600 a month, according to Cuomo.
The companies named in the suit include: EMC of New York Inc.; FSC Construction LLC FSC General Construction LLC; BMC Construction Contractors Corp.; Eastlake Industries, Inc., and Rigid Concrete Construction.
They all worked on New York City jobs, Cuomo said.
"To discriminate against workers based on race or ethnicity and to deny them wages...is a gross violation of the law and a disgraceful abuse of power," Cuomo said.
He said the lawsuit "should send a message to in New York - you play by the rules or face legal consequences."
Mahoney could not be reached immediately for comment. Last year, workers at several Mahoney sites told the News that they had been provided with false Occupational Safety and Health Administration certificates indicating that they had received safety training when they had not.
The workers said they received the cards, required in the city for high-rise construction, from supervisors on the job, including Mahoney's brother, Timmy Mahoney.
Both brothers denied any involvement in the issuing of black market OSHA cards.
At one point, Michael Mahoney tried to rip a camera from a News photogrpher covering the story.
One of the workers who said he was issued a bogus OSHA certificate, told the News that he and other Brazilian workers were bussed daily to Mahoney job sites from the Ironbound section of Newark and were paid less than non-minority workers.
Union investigators had been investigating wage irregularities in Manhoney's companies for several years.

Several of Mahoney's job sites have been picketed by members of the District Council of Carpenters, who erected a giant inflatible rat at some of them to protest the use of non-union labor. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/10/15/2009-10-15_6_constructions_companies_accused_of_paying.html#ixzz0U0Jj1ZX9