THE BLUEPRINT:
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Over $99,000 in wages was unlawfully withheld from five employees, officials say.
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Misclassification led to workers being severely underpaid on a Longwood school project.
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Company is banned from NY public works for 5 years as part of the plea deal.
A contractor pleaded guilty Monday in Suffolk County District Court to a felony charge of willfully failing to pay prevailing wages and supplemental benefits, along with a related offense. The charges stem from a public works project in which more than $99,000 was unlawfully withheld from employees, officials said.
Geraldo DeAlmeida, of South River, NJ, and his corporation, R&L Concrete, pleaded guilty to the charges, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said.
DeAlmeida and his company served as subcontractors on a project from November 25, 2019, to April 10, 2020, involving the construction of an administrative building in the Longwood Central School District, whose administrative offices are in Middle Island.
“This conviction reaffirms my commitment to protecting workers’ rights by combatting wage theft,” Tierney said in a news release about the guilty plea.
“It speaks to our dedication to the fight against anyone who would fraudulently and illegally fail to pay employees for their honest labor in Suffolk County,” he added.
Officials say that the public works contract required DeAlmeida, operating through R&L Concrete, to accurately list and classify the employees on certified payrolls and to pay them the legally mandated prevailing wage and supplemental benefits. Instead, officials allege that DeAlmeida willfully misclassified employees under lower-paying job titles to avoid paying the appropriate rates. As a result, several workers who were entitled to wages ranging from $68 to $198 per hour were paid only $22 to $25 per hour.
According to officials, DeAlmeida omitted one employee entirely from the certified payrolls, in direct violation of New York State Labor Laws.
Officials said Monday that as part of the plea agreement, DeAlmeida and his company must pay $99,671 in withheld wages to five employees. Because of the felony plea, R&L Concrete is barred by the New York State Department of Labor from participating in any public works projects in the state for the next five years.
DeAlmeida and R&L Concrete were also involved in a separate but related settlement with the New York State Department of Labor concerning the same project. As part of that agreement, they admitted to a willful violation for underpaying employees and agreed to provide additional restitution to the affected workers.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
