Business briefs for April 5, 2002

Friday, April 5, 2002 | 11:04 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The nation's unemployment rate nudged up to 5.7 percent in March, but employers added 58,000 new positions to payrolls, signaling a strengthening economy that hasn't completely filtered down to the jobs market.

The March rate announced today by the Labor Department, was an increase of 0.2 percentage points from the previous month. Economists had been expecting a rise to at least 5.6 percent.

Employment gains in services and local government tempered job losses in construction and manufacturing. The 58,000 new jobs added last month marked the first gain in seven months and followed a revised February loss of 2,000 payroll jobs.

Vegas contractor hit with big wage claim

The state Labor Commissioner's office sued Thursday to force Meadow Valley Contractors Inc. of Las Vegas to pay $460,519 in prevailing wages allegedly owed to workers.

Meadow Valley, owned by Meadow Valley Corp. of Phoenix, built several highway projects -- including the new Spaghetti Bowl -- for the Nevada Department of Transportation and Clark County.

The state said Meadow Valley subcontracted work to Innovative Construction Co., which the state claimed failed to pay full prevailing wages to its workers starting in December 1999.

The suit, filed in Clark County District Court, alleged Innovative made "base payments but not the amounts equaling fringe benefits" -- funds that are paid to its workers' union trust, the Operating Engineers' Trust and Welfare program."

The defendant could not be reached for comment on the allegations.

Three phone giants promise to advertise truthfully

CARSON CITY -- Twenty-two states, including Nevada, have signed a settlement with three major long-distance telephone companies that were accused of spreading misleading price information.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said Tuesday that Sprint, AT&T and MCI WorldCom have signed an "assurance of discontinuance" to cease certain advertising practices. The companies, in the settlement, denied any wrongdoing.

Two years ago the companies advertised rates at 2-5 cents per minute. Del Papa said the firms failed to disclose clearly and conspicuously that additional monthly fees were assessed, that in some cases the low rates were good only at night or on weekends and that in-state long distance rates could be higher than the advertised discount rate.

The companies paid a $1.5 million fine to settle the state investigations.