Provides for additional penalties for failure to pay prevailing wages or supplements; encourages private actions for recovery of wrongfully withheld wages or supplements by persons employed on a public work contract; authorizes direct recovery against contractor or subcontractor in the absence of a payment bond on a public improvement contract; directs that any civil penalties ordered to be paid to the comptroller pursuant to such an action shall be made available to the commissioner of labor for the purposes of article eight of the labor law (public work).
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
400
2009-2010 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 7, 2009
___________
Introduced by M. of A. JOHN -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Labor
AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to providing for additional
penalties for failure to pay prevailing wages or supplements
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 220-g of the labor law, as amended by chapter 242
2 of the laws of 2002, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 220-g. [Additional] Private enforcement of article. 1. For the
4 purpose of enforcing this article, the affected employee may bring an
5 action to recover from the bond which is required by section one hundred
6 thirty-seven of the state finance law, of the contractor, the subcon-
7 tractor or both, unpaid wages and supplements, including interest as
8 provided for in subdivision eight of section two hundred twenty of this
9 article, due to persons furnishing labor to either the contractor or
10 subcontractor. Said action may be brought against the contractor, the
11 subcontractor, or the issuer of such bond, without prior notice, within
12 one year of the date of the last alleged underpayment, or within one
13 year of the date of the filing of an order by the commissioner or other
14 fiscal officer determining a wage or supplement underpayment. The
15 employee may permit an employee organization or the commissioner or
16 other fiscal officer to commence such action on his or her behalf.
17 2. In the event that an authorized official has dispensed with the
18 requirement to post a payment bond in accord with the provisions of
19 section one hundred thirty-seven of the state finance law in a contract
20 for the prosecution of a public improvement for the state of New York, a
21 municipal corporation, a public benefit corporation or a commission
22 appointed pursuant to law, or in the absence of a requirement to post
23 such a bond, an aggrieved employee or an employee organization on behalf
24 of such employee may bring an action to recover amounts authorized here-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02603-01-9
A. 400 2
1 by directly from the contractor or subcontractor for which labor was
2 performed in the prosecution of such public improvement.
3 3. Actions brought pursuant to this section may be brought in the
4 county in which such labor was performed or if such labor was performed
5 in more than one county, then in any such county unless otherwise speci-
6 fied by the terms of the bond from which recovery is sought.
7 4. Upon a finding of underpayment or nonpayment of wages and/or
8 supplements, the court, in addition to ordering payment of such wages
9 and/or supplements, shall order payment (a) to each affected employee of
10 a sum equal to three times the full amount of wages or supplements
11 improperly withheld from such employee, (b) to each affected employee or
12 to the employee organization which brought the action on behalf of such
13 employee, but only to the extent paid or owed and admitted, all court
14 costs and fees, reasonable attorney's fees and disbursements, including
15 fees of expert witnesses, and (c) to the commissioner a civil penalty in
16 an amount equal to twenty-five percent of the sum of all wages and/or
17 supplements found to have been improperly withheld which sum shall be
18 paid into a special account established by the state comptroller for the
19 sole purpose of providing funds to be used by the commissioner for
20 enforcement of the provisions of this article.
21 § 2. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
22 have become a law and shall apply to any conduct occurring on or after
23 such effective date.
