Compromise made in labor dispute

Jeffrey Libby

Thursday, May 30, 2002 | 10:54 a.m.

The state labor commissioner on Wednesday issued a compromise settlement on behalf of five construction workers at the Henderson municipal parking garage, ordering a subcontractor to pay $11,530 in additional wages and penalties.

In the four-page settlement, however, the subcontractor, Precision Concrete, admits no violation of state prevailing wage laws. An audit and interviews conducted by Henderson administrators also found no wage violations at the $7.2 million parking garage, which opened in December.

But Labor Commissioner Terry Johnson has yet to rule on union allegations that the city's investigation was inadequate. A state law enacted in 2001 requires awarding bodies, in this case Henderson, to ensure workers are paid state-mandated wages on public works projects.

Johnson received the city's response to the union allegations Friday and has 30 days to decide.

The southwest regional carpenter's union, which has unofficially represented the interests of the workers, expressed disappointment today in the labor commissioner's Wednesday settlement.

At a March administrative hearing, six workers said they were owed $25,550. Precision Concrete paid them laborer wages while they did carpenter work, they said. One worker's claim was rejected for lack of credibility after it was determined he had worked under two names.

The state approved the compromise, Deputy Attorney General Dianna Hegeduis said, because much of the disputed work was "borderline" and could have been categorized either way.

Chad Stewart, president of Precision Concrete, said he settled to avoid continued legal expenses.

"The night before the hearing, they (the Carpenters Union) said they could make the charges go away in a half-hour," Stewart said. "This whole thing was to give them a bargaining chip."

The union, however, argued that Precision Concrete should have been barred from working on state public works projects and that workers should have received 100 percent of their claims.

"Obviously the city has done an incredibly poor job on this project and in monitoring Precision Concrete," Jim Sala, director of organizing for the union, said.