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New York City Comptroller William Thompson announced that his office has reached a settlement with Netexit Inc. regarding the payment of nearly $1.5 million to 16 employees for work at Human Resources Administration sites throughout the city.

The workers installed and repaired telephone cables at 49 Human Resources Administration (HRA) offices in the city. Of the 49 HRA sites, Thompson’s office said that five of them are located in Queens. The sites were listed as 32-28, 32-20, and 33-28 Northern Blvd, 220 Beach 87th Street in Far Rockaway, and 90-75 Sutphin Blvd in Jamaica.

“Most contractors are honest and law-abiding, but there are those who knowingly fail to pay workers prevailing wages, money these workers have earned and rightly deserve,”
Thompson said. “There is a reason that prevailing laws are in place. In this case, Netexit willfully took advantage of its workers and clearly violated the law.”

In 2001, HRA awarded a $22.5 million contract with Netexit, formerly known as Expanets, to perform telecommunications maintenance at the 49 sites. From June 2001 to August 2003, Netexit paid the 16 workers $12-18 an hour, with little or no overtime or benefits.

Thompson determined that according to the current prevailing wage schedule, the workers deserved payments of up to $41 per hour plus benefits. As a result of that decision, Netexit subsequently agreed to pay the full underpayment of $1,485,475. The Bankruptcy Court approved that settlement in December 2005.

Thompson’s office said that five of the 16 workers are from Queens, coming from locations such as Cambria Heights, Rosedale, and Far Rockaway.

“The labor movement applauds Comptroller Thompson for his vigorous enforcement of our city’s prevailing wage laws and his courage to continually stand up for working people against seedy business interests,” said Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin (D-Flushing), who is also president of the New York City Central Labor Council. “These 16 skilled electricians deserved a fair wage for a fair day’s work.”

In the aftermath of this settlement, Thompson is trying to strengthen his prevailing wage campaign by distributing flyers to encourage workers on city projects to report any instances in which they are not receiving their legal wage.
The flyers, written in English and Spanish, lay out the rights of workers under public contract. They are available for viewing at the comptroller’s Web site, www.comptroller.nyc.gov.