WASHINGTON — Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced Wednesday that Christian Siding, a construction company that has worked on different projects throughout the District, must pay $725,000 to resolve allegations of not properly paying its workers.
Some construction projects require “prevailing wages,” which are higher than minimum wage and required on certain publicly-funded projects, according to a press release. According to the Office of the Attorney General, there were three publicly-funded affordable housing projects on which Christian Siding misclassified workers as independent contractors on 13 additional projects. Christian Siding, the OAG says, deprived workers of overtime wages and benefits that they were legally entitled to.
“Failing to pay the required prevailing wage cheats both workers and DC taxpayers out of the full financial benefits of publicly-funded projects,” said Attorney General Schwalb in a statement. “In DC, legal accountability for prevailing wage violations extends all the way up the contracting chain—if your company or any of its subcontractors are underpaying workers, all of you can be held accountable. This settlement puts money back where it belongs and ensures that all construction firms in DC compete on a level playing field.”…