State legislators examined Tuesday two bills that aim to
combat wage theft by potentially withholding payments in response to labor
violations on public-works projects and making contractors liable for the
unpaid wages of subcontractors’ employees.
The discussion during a five-hour hearing of the General
Assembly’s Labor and Public Employees Committee made clear that efforts to
bolster worker protections will again be a top objective for the panel. A
number of state officials have already rallied around one of those bills,
Senate Bill 268, which would allow the state comptroller to suspend payments to
contractors and subcontractors for prevailing-wage violations, when stop-work
orders are issued by the state
Department of Labor.
“This is just kind of another tool in our toolbox, if we are
having difficulty collecting wages for these workers, as well as penalties and
fines,” Danté Bartolomeo, the commissioner of the state Department of
Labor, said during her testimony to the committee. “It would allow me to hand
this over to the comptroller, if we’re having difficulty. And then he could
withhold, after a 10-day warning to the employer, public-fund payment to the
employer.”
Prevailing wages comprise hourly rates and benefits paid to
most workers on public-works projects. Breaches of prevailing wages are among
the violations for which the Department of Labor issues stop-work orders.
“Right now, the Department of Labor can investigate cases
when contractors cheat employees and even place stop-work orders on public
projects until workers have been repaid,” Comptroller Sean Scanlon, a
first-term Democrat, said in written testimony. “However, there is currently no
ability for my office to withhold state payments to such contractors, allowing
them to still be paid by taxpayer funds even when they are being actively
investigated for a prevailing-wage violation. That’s wrong, and we shouldn’t
reward employers who fail to follow the law with taxpayer dollars”.
The bill’s supporters also include a number of unions.
“What this is about is getting the company to come into
compliance, getting restitution paid, and these penalties paid back to the
state, and everybody can move on, and we can proceed with the project,” said
Kimberly Glassman, director of compliance and government affairs at the
International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478.
There was also extensive debate Tuesday of House Bill 5275,
the legislation that would make contractors liable for unpaid wages owed to
subcontractor employees at any “tier.”
“In the construction industry, when something goes wrong,
the first thing that happens is people start pointing fingers, and no one takes
accountability,” said Joseph Toner, executive director of the Connecticut State
Building Trades Council, which represents approximately 30,000 construction
workers across the state. “When these construction managers… are awarded these
projects, it is incumbent on them to make sure that people are being paid
in their entirety.”
Other proponents of the bill include Matthew Capece,
representative of the general president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters
and Joiners of America. In his written testimony, Capece cited data showing
that, in Connecticut, up to approximately 28% of the construction workforce is
paid off the books or misclassified as independent contractors, resulting in
$146.5 million in lost state and federal revenues, $111.7 million in unpaid
premiums for workers’ compensation and $30.2 million in theft of overtime
wages.
“Who should be prevailing in the construction industry?
Should it be the good guys that are following the law or the bad guys that are
breaking the law?” Capece said in his in-person testimony Tuesday. “I tell
you, right now, it’s the bad guys that got the leg up, and that is wrong.”
But several advocates for the construction industry
expressed their opposition to HB 5275. Jim Perras, CEO of the Home
Builders and Remodelers Association of Connecticut, which represents about 900
businesses statewide, asserted that the measure constituted “a sweeping and
unprecedented expansion of liability in private construction” and would
exacerbate the state’s “full-blown housing crisis.”
“This bill will increase construction costs, reduce
subcontractor participation and make projects harder to finance and
insure,” Perras said. “Small- and minority-owned subcontractors will be
the first to be pushed out. Fewer subs means less competition, higher prices
and slower production. And slower production is the last thing that Connecticut
can afford.”
Christopher Fryxell, president of the Associated
Builders and Contractors of Connecticut, which represents more than 260
businesses, took a similar position.
“Contractors will figure out a way to protect themselves
from liability. The only way they can do is to increase bond requirements on
those subcontractors or increase their insurance coverage to help insulate
themselves, protect themselves from that liability,” Fryxell said. “Those
costs… are going to be built into the overall bid number on a project and
eventually be passed down to those subcontractors.”
Fryxell also submitted testimony against Senate Bill
268.
The Labor and Public Employees Committee did not vote on any
bills on Tuesday. But the committee’s co-chairpersons, state Sen.
Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, and state Rep. Manny Sanchez, D-New Britain, as
well as state Sen. Jorge Cabrera, D-Hamden, the committee’s Senate vice
chairman, issued Tuesday written statements in support of SB 268.
“What's clear is that if a contractor hires a subcontractor,
and that subcontractor is not abiding by all the state's labor laws, that
contractor should be held responsible for the actions of their
employee,” Kushner said in her statement. “When we pass this bill, it
should have the effect of forcing contractors to be much more thorough in
vetting and ensuring that the subcontractors they hire have a good track record
of complying with state labor laws.”
Torrington eyes 'pie in the sky' ideas for former Hendey site after foreclosure ruling
Sloan Brewster
TORRINGTON — With lofty ideas for eventual redevelopment,
the city is working with a land bank on cleanup plans for the
former Hendey Machine Company property that burned
down last September.
Superior Court Judge Ann Lynch recently issued a judgement
of strict foreclosure on the Summer and Litchfield Street properties that
make up the nine-acre former manufacturing site. Property owner Wei Wang, who
owns the properties under Yun Hua Inc. and Ying Bao LLC, has until March 30 to
pay $1.4 million in blight liens and $166,568 in back taxes or the city will
take the titles the following day.
The city is working with CT Brownfield Land Bank, Inc. on a
planned environmental cleanup of the site, Director of Economic Development
William Wallach said. They are currently in negotiations to determine who will
hold the title during cleanup.
Wallach, noting they were “pie in the sky” ideas from his
“crazy brain,” said he envisions a regional draw such as Stew Leonard’s,
Costco, Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.
“Those are things that people travel out of the way to,” he
said. “It reshapes what this downtown looks like long term."
Wallach said it’s too early to say what may eventually be
constructed on the property as it is unclear what it will take to clean it up.
“It’s so hard to put something together because of the
environmental contamination," he said.
Most recently the former
Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. was on the property, but the buildings date back to
the late 1800s and early 1900s when it was the Hendey Machine Company, a
machine tool company that built machinery on order, according to Mark
McEachern, executive director of the Torrington Historical Society.
Now they are a pile of rubble.
Deputy Fire Marshal John Ryan said the fire remains under
investigation by the State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit.
Mayor Molly Spino said the foreclosure was a positive step
forward and the city is focused on cleanup and positioning the site for
redevelopment that will support economic growth and benefit the surrounding
neighborhood.
“The city will continue to follow the court process and
evaluate next steps as timelines allow,” she said.
The city, land bank, the state Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection and the United States Environmental Protection Agency
will likely work together on the cleanup, Wallach said.
The $1.4 million in blight liens owed to the city topples
the property’s appraised value.
According to the city’s land records, the buildings and land
on the property were appraised at $889,500.
The city filed for foreclose in January 2025. In
anticipation of a judgement in the city’s favor, officials put in an
application for a brownfield cleanup grant last September, days before the
fire.
“I think we submitted on September 25 and then the place
burnt to the ground,” Wallach said.
In light of the fire, the city did not receive the grant, he
said. At the time, officials were considering putting a public safety complex
there.
Once it is clear what it will take to clean up the property,
the city will apply for more grants for the actual cleanup. In the meantime, it
is investing approximately $170,000 towards assessment for the cleanup.
After that, officials will consider potential redevelopment
projects.
Wallach said the redevelopment opportunity connects with the
mostly abandoned 14-acre Stop & Shop Plaza across the street, which went
into foreclosure last year. In September Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial
real estate brokerage in West Hartford, was named receiver for the property.
The two properties compile 24 acres, Wallach noted.
He said it's rare to find a redevelopment opportunity like
this in a downtown district in Connecticut.
“Twenty percent of the district is ripe for
redevelopment," Wallach said.