Nonunion laborers sue builder in wage dispute

By Megan McCloskey

Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Amid a sweeping effort to organize residential construction laborers, five Las Vegas workers have joined others from California and Arizona in suing one of the nation’s largest homebuilding subcontractors over pay.

In the suit filed in federal court in California on Monday, the 15 construction workers allege SelectBuild, which builds homes for well-known companies including Pardee, KB Home and Toll Brothers, has failed to pay them for all the hours they worked. They are seeking class action status.

The workers claim they are forced to sign time sheets that underreport the hours they work, aren’t paid for all their time on the work site, including downtime while waiting for supplies, and aren’t paid the federally mandated wage for overtime hours.

Mark R. Kailer, a spokesman for Building Materials Holding Corp., SelectBuild’s parent company, said the suit is without merit and the company fully complies with federal and state wage laws.

Even as the homebuilding boom has skidded to a halt in the crashing economy, the Laborers’ International Union of North America has been trying to organize construction workers in Southern California, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Many of those workers have complained about being underpaid, Jacob Hay, the Laborers’ union spokesman, said.

The union claims the practice of underpaying workers is systemic in the homebuilding industry nationwide.

Jeffrey Grabelsky, director of the Construction Industry Program at Cornell University, said some in the industry have been skirting regulations and the lawsuit could “shine a light of public scrutiny” on the issue.

One Las Vegas-based SelectBuild worker, Eduardo Acevedo Nava, said he often worked 60 hours but was paid for only 40. He said he signed the inaccurate time sheets because he needed to be paid so he could take care of his family.

The company “has not been held accountable for what it’s been doing and we’re seeking justice,” he said.

The union said it had heard similar stories from workers in Arizona and California.

SelectBuild said the lawsuit “appears to be part of an ongoing union campaign to force the company to recognize it as the bargaining agent for employees.”

The suit’s plaintiffs are also helping with the union’s organizing efforts, and even though the union says the two issues are separate, the lawsuit will raise the union’s profile.

“It certainly helps the standing and credibility of the Laborers union within the industry and among workers they seek to organize,” Grabelsky said. “But I don’t think that it necessarily changes the climate and makes it significantly easier to organize, because economic conditions are difficult.”