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HEADLINE: PREVAILING WAGE DISPUTE;
Harris County says immigrant workers were underpaid, fines contractor

SOURCE: Staff

BYLINE: EDWARD HEGSTROM

BODY:
The company that painted the county's Criminal Justice Center has been fined for allegedly shortchanging workers by more than $ 216,000, the largest wage-rate violation ever discovered in Harris County.

The county last month found that Architectural Finishes Inc. paid more than 30 workers the salary of low-level helpers, even though they actually worked as skilled painters. Virtually all of the workers on the job were immigrants from Mexico.

On Harris County-funded construction jobs, contractors are required to guarantee that workers are paid wages appropriate for the work they do - a concept known as "prevailing wages." "As far as we're concerned, if they are painting, they are to be paid the wage of a painter," said Harris County Contract Compliance Officer Jack Rodriguez.

Architectural Finishes President George Beebe did not return phone calls seeking comment. But the attorney representing the company said she plans to contest the finding.

Union leaders hailed the county's finding as an important step toward fairness for immigrant workers. Local unions have begun investigating wage rates even on nonunion jobs to ensure that workers are paid appropriate wages.

"By and large, we have found that if you have a Hispanic surname, you are being cheated," on local government-funded construction jobs, said Richard Shaw, secretary-treasurer of the Harris County AFL-CIO Council.

But building industry officials say the problem is not serious.

"There are some contractors who cheat, but they are renegades," said Pat Kiley, the executive vice president of the Houston Associated General Contractors. Kiley called the problem "very minimal."

Virtually all of the Architectural Finishes workers who painted the interior of the $ 98 million Criminal Justice Center were immigrants who spoke little or no English, according to one worker.

"We were pure Mexicans," said Jose Luis Gomez, a former Architectural Finishes employee who is among those who filed a complaint with the county. "There weren't any Anglos. There was one Chicano who spoke English," but he left after realizing that the wages were not sufficient, Gomez said in an interview in Spanish.

Gomez, 41, said that he and other workers on the job had proper work visas, though others did not.

A contractor hired to paint a building typically uses many painters and a few helpers, said Rodriguez. But Architectural Finishes' payroll indicated the company painted the interior of the Criminal Justice Center with two painters and 38 helpers. This made county investigators suspicious that maybe some of those men listed as helpers were actually painting.

"It was not real likely you could paint a 20-story building with two painters," said Rodriguez.

The county investigation found that Architectural Finishes underpaid workers by $ 216,074.57. Additionally, the county has assessed $ 42,430 in fines.

Rodriguez sent a letter last month informing contractors on the Criminal Justice Center that partial payment had been withheld until Architectural Finishes and the workers can negotiate an agreement on payment. The county has withheld about $ 300,000, he said.

If the contractor and workers cannot settle the wage dispute, the workers can take the case to a state district judge for mediation, Rodriguez said.

The company will contest the finding, said attorney Judith Batson Sadler.

"We do not think Architectural Finishes is liable for that sum of money, and we will take appropriate actions to defend the company," said Sadler, who would not comment on the specifics of the case.

Sadler went on to blame the unions for using the case to seek revenge against Architectural Finishes. The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, which helped workers file their complaint, lost a vote nearly a year ago that would have unionized the company.

Rodriguez acknowledged that the union helped file the complaint but said that had no bearing on the facts of the case.

The concept of prevailing wages became federal law in 1931, when Congress approved the Davis-Bacon Act. The law was designed to ensure that Depression-era private contractors could not cut costs on government-funded projects by underpaying workers.

All construction done with federal money must follow the Davis-Bacon rules, which establish a strict pay scale based on skill. Contractors are required to post the wages prominently on the work site.

The state of Texas, Harris County and the city of Houston all have their own prevailing-wage laws that apply when local government money is used to build a project.

Union representatives argue that prevailing wages not only work to combat exploitation, they also help guarantee that government buildings are put together by qualified workers.

"You don't want to sleep in a house wired by a $ 5-an-hour electrician," said Dale Wortham, president of the Harris County AFL-CIO Council. "So why should the city do the same?"

In an effort to reach Hispanic immigrant workers, local unions have begun investigating cases of alleged prevailing-wage violations even on sites where no union members are working.

While praising the county's efforts to ensure that workers are paid a fair wage, labor organizers accuse the city of all but ignoring the problem.

The city places its contract compliance workers in the same department as the affirmative action office. Union leaders allege that the city places more emphasis on making work for minority contractors than it does on ensuring that those same contractors treat their workers fairly.

Ironically, minority contractors are sometimes the ones who treat immigrant workers badly, according to Wortham.

"We believe in affirmative action," Wortham said. "But we believe it should work for the guy whose foot is on the shovel, and not just the guy who owns it."

Velma Laws, the deputy assistant director of the city's Affirmative Action and Contract Compliance Office, disputes that there is any conflict between the two functions of her office.

Laws says the city aggressively investigates any allegations of prevailing-wage law violations on city jobs. She said that the city has found that contractors comply with the regulations on 94 percent of the jobs.

CORRECTION-DATE: August 23, 2000

CORRECTION:
CLARIFICATION: A photograph of Marek Brothers Systems foreman Jimmy Van Howten speaking with workers about posted wage rates accompanied this story detailing alleged underpayments to workers on a separate project by Architectural Finishes. The photograph was intended to illustrate the posting of prevailing wages on government construction job sites. Marek Brothers Systems was not a subject of the story, and the Chronicle in no way intended to imply that the company has ever been in violation of wage practices.

GRAPHIC: Photo (SEE CLARIFICATION): Foreman Jimmy Van Howten spends time with workers and painters from Marek Brothers Systems on Monday, reviewing the posted wage rates for government building construction at the new Gulfgate Clinic job site (color); E. Joseph Deering / Chronicle

TYPE: Series

NOTES: Second of two parts.

LOAD-DATE: November 21, 2000