A Hialeah contractor working in Little Havana shorted four workers $115,000 in pay
A Hialeah elevator contractor working on public housing in Little Havana has paid $115,839 after violating two different federal laws, the Department of Labor announced.
That money from Global Elevator Sales & Services went to four workers, $28,959.75 per worker.
According to Labor, the company headed by Nelson Garcia and Raymon Garcia Jr. worked as a subcontractor for Miami’s Fortune Urban Construction on Miami-Dade Public Housing’s new Martin Fine Villas. This building, on Northwest Seventh Street across from Marlins Park, replaced the 1979-built Martin Fine Villas that sat on the corner of Northwest Seventh Street and 13th Avenue until its razing this fall.
As a project that received federal funds, Davis-Bacon and Related Acts applied. This required Global Elevator to pay laborers and mechanics on the project at least the same money and benefits that they’d get for a similar project in the same market.
But Wage and Hour Division investigators found Global Elevator wrongly classified two elevator mechanics as laborers, and underpaid them in cash and fringe benefits.
“In addition, Global Elevator failed to record and pay for time employees worked before and after their scheduled shifts,” Labor said. “This unpaid time spent loading and unloading trucks, and traveling to and from worksites resulted in overtime violations under the (Fair Labor Standards Act).”
