(QUEENS, NEW YORK) - The Navico B&S Construction Corporation has been caught underpaying Wages and Benefits to Workers at a publicly-funded New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Construction Project in Queens, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s Office has announced.

Following an investigation by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the New York City Department of Investigation, owner Jagdish Singh, 57, has been sentenced for failure to pay Wages.  It was determined Employees were required to kick back Wages.

“Construction Workers building affordable housing for families, like ‘all other’ Workers, ‘deserve’ to be paid ‘properly,’” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “My office will continue to take ‘aggressive action’ against employers who ‘cheat’ Workers out of their ‘hard-earned’ Wages.  We will ‘not rest’ until ‘all’ Workers in New York are ‘treated with the respect they deserve.’”

Navico supplied and maintained the scaffolding for brickwork and roof restoration at the Pomonok Houses located on Parsons Boulevard in Queens.

In the Fall of 2014, NYCHA’s Inspector General’s Office was informed by a Navico Employee that the company foreman, Jagdish Singh, required a “kick-back” of a portion of his weekly wages if he wanted to maintain employment.  The scheme began in August 2014 and continued through November 8th, 2014.  The kick-backs for this Employee totaled $5,785.  Four other Employees were also required to kick back a portion of their paycheck in cash to Singh in order to keep their job – in the process dodging State Labor and Prevailing Wage Laws - serious crimes that target New York's most vulnerable populations and impact the lives of honest Workers and their families, the Attorney General’s Office said.

The hiring of Non-Union Contractors continues to be problematic for municipalities. Studies regularly document Non-Union Labor is inferior to Union Work and that Non-Union Construction often produces poor quality workmanship and sometimes dangerous working conditions for Employees.

To Directly Access This Labor News Story, Go to: http://laborpress.org/sectors/municipal-labor/6182-non-union-contractors-skirt-prevailing-rate