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Chelsea School renovation
leads to lawsuit
Day laborers often ripped off by subcontractors
Two day laborers who claim
they were not paid any wages for four weeks of work at the
Chelsea School have filed a lawsuit in the Silver Spring District
Court. They were employed as part of the school’s renovation
of its Silver Spring campus.
The Chelsea School is a nonprofit private school dedicated
to educating area students with learning disabilities. Its
4.9 acre campus is located on Pershing Drive in downton Silver
Spring. The site formerly housed the Academy of the Holy Names.
The renovation is expected to be completed in 2005, according
to the school’s website.
The workers, according to their lawsuit, allege they were
picked up by a contractor on University Boulevard in October
2002. The man promised to pay Edwin Lopez $13 per hour and
to pay his cousin Edgar Perez $16 per hour. Their duties included
hanging drywall and plastering walls at the mansion located
on the school’s campus. The day laborers each performed
nine days of work before the man disappeared without paying
any money, according to their lawsuit. That contractor, the
workers believe, is Raul Salazar, of Beltsville.
When the two day laborers returned to the work site looking
for Salazar, they met another contractor who again promised
to hire them and to pay $15 per hour. This time the two cousins
worked an additional eight days and again were not paid any
money for their labor.
Workers left holding
a beeper number
According to the workers’ attorneys, school officials
were extremely cooperative and provided information about
the general contractor and sub-contractor assigned to do the
work. This information was essential to the workers. After
they realized that they were not going to get paid, they did
not know where to turn, according to Jayesh Rathod, one of
the attorneys representing the workers. "They literally
were left holding a beeper number."
HRGM, of Washington, DC, was the general contractor on the
Chelsea job. This is not the first time the corporation has
had legal issues. According to a Washington Times article,
last summer the company was fired from its job renovating
the historic Tenleytown Fire Station for unsatisfactory performance.
Also last summer, HRGM saw its contract terminated by Montgomery
County Board of Education for work it was to complete at Glen
Haven Elementary School after disputes arose about its performance
under the contract.
The day laborers’ lawsuit names HRGM and its subcontractor,
Stanley Taylor of STI Painting Contactors, Inc., defendants.
Mr. Taylor, of Alexandria, has not been served with the papers.
According to the lawsuit, STI is not registered to perform
work in Maryland.
When is a general
contractor liable?
At the first hearing, District Court Judge Michael Algeo
refused to let HRGM off the hook after its attorney asked
that the corporation be dismissed from the lawsuit. The workers,
through their attorneys, argued that HRGM is responsible for
the non-payment of wages as a joint employer or worksite employer.
The workers principally rely upon a Supreme Court decision
that held a general contractor liable for the wage violations
of its subcontractor whose employees were performing work
integral to the business purposes of the general contractor.
According to Rathod, a general contractor is responsible
under workers’ compensation laws for any worker injured
on its job site. "We think the same principle applies
when a crime occurs and workers don’t receive their salary,"
said Rathod.
For attorney Rathod, who is employed by CASA of Maryland,
this case represents a larger trend facing immigrant day laborers.
"We see an increasing number of cases where day laborers
are hired by sub- or sub-sub-contractors who easily disappear
without paying their workers after the work is completed,"
said Rathod.
Mechanic’s lien law
offers remedy
In a similar case filed by CASA, 12 workers are seeking to
establish a mechanic’s lien against new condominium units
being built by Washington Homes. The men were employed at
King’s Farm in Gaithersburg and in Bowie. According to
the petition, a sub-sub-contractor of Washington Homes failed
to pay their wages for four weeks. In that case, the workers
believe that they were not paid because a dispute occurred
between the employer, Francisco Sandoval, and the sub-contractor,
Independence Carpentry. Under Maryland’s Mechanic’s
Lien Law, a property owner is liable in certain cases when
persons supplying labor or materials are not properly paid,
regardless of whether the property owner is guilty. This too
is a powerful remedy for day laborers, who according to attorneys
familiar with the case, are increasingly being hired to perform
new home construction.
The HRGM lawsuit seeks wages and damages in excess of $13,000.
A trial date has not been set.
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