FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Laura Garcia, 602-626-8805
TEMPE, Ariz. – Jan. 10, 2018 – The compliance division of Torres Consulting and Law Group (TCLG) helped recover more than $53,000 in back wages and benefits owed to workers in New Mexico.
In response to a complaint filed by TCLG, the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions (NMDWS), found that Service Electric Company, Inc. (Service), an Albuquerque-based contractor, underpaid its workers on the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology’s Chemistry Building project in Socorro, New Mexico. During the course of the investigation, the NMDWS determined that Service failed to pay its employees the appropriate subsistence, zone and incentive pay required under the New Mexico Public Works Minimum Wage Act.
“Contractors not playing by the rules will eventually get caught,” said Israel Torres, TCLG’s managing partner. “Every worker deserves a fair wage for the job they are doing.”
The New Mexico Public Works Minimum Wage Act requires contractors on public works projects to pay tradesmen, laborers and mechanics a prevailing wage set by the NMDWS. Contractors sometimes try to circumvent the law by underpaying their workers. For example, they may pay their workers the appropriate hourly wages but do not pay the required travel and subsistence.
TCLG aggressively monitors prevailing wage projects on municipal, state and federal construction contracts for compliance. TCLG provides a variety of consulting services, including regulatory compliance and public and government relations, to clients across the United States. A specialty is Davis-Bacon and prevailing wage compliance for local unions, contractor associations and building trades’ organizations.