New York ConEd Contractor Failed to Pay Prevailing Wages, Supplemental Benefits, Lawsuit Claims

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ConEd contractor Safeway Construction Enterprises LLC has failed to pay proper prevailing wage rates and supplemental benefits for every hour worked on excavation projects for New York City public streets, roadways and sidewalks, a proposed collective action claims. 

According to the 26-page lawsuit, the plaintiff, in addition to being deprived of correct prevailing wages and supplemental benefits, was not compensated for time spent traveling between job sites and for time spent working in Safeway Construction’s yard, resulting in “significant unpaid regular and overtime wages each week.”

Safeway Construction works within the site development and utilities business, handling specifically underground installation, repairs, upgrades and maintenance of gas, electrical, water, steam and telecommunications infrastructure throughout the New York metropolitan area, the lawsuit begins. As part of its work, the defendant has entered into contracts, as either a subcontractor or prime contractor, with Consolidated Edison (ConEd) and New York state public entities to provide excavation services on public streets, roadways and sidewalks, the suit says. 

Safeway Construction is obligated under its public works contracts to pay workers at or above the local prevailing wage rates, including any supplemental benefits or overtime premiums for hours worked in excess of 40 each week or eight per day, and for weekend and evening hours, according to the complaint. 

The plaintiff, a union member who worked for the defendant as a backhoe operator from around February 2017 through December 2018 and again from March 2019 through around January 2020, would arrive at the defendant’s Maspeth, New York yard sometimes as early as 5:00 or 5:30 a.m., and was required to report to as many as five job sites during a single workday, the case says. At the end of each workday, the plaintiff was required to return the backhoe to the defendant’s yard and prepare a report of every job site on which he performed excavation work, the hours he put in for the day and the amount of soil excavated at each site, according to the complaint. 

The lawsuit alleges, however, that the plaintiff and other construction workers were “routinely” instructed by Safeway Construction and ConEd supervisors to “fill in only the hours that they performed work on job sites,” leaving out the substantial amount of time spent at the defendant’s yard and traveling between the yard and job sites. The case claims the plaintiff was paid throughout his employment only for time working on job sites, with no compensation of any kind for time spent at the yard, receiving assignments, inspecting the backhoe, and preparing site and work hour reports each day, or for time traveled between the yard and job sites. 

Per the lawsuit, although the plaintiff was paid his union’s base and benefit rates for his work as a laborer, he should have been paid at certain prevailing wage rates, with supplemental benefits, for his role as a backhoe operator throughout 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. 

The case aims to represent anyone employed by Safeway Construction Enterprises at any time since October 29, 2017 through the entry of judgment in the lawsuit and who worked as an operator. 

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