The California state labor commissioner this week levied $1.5 million in penalties against a framing contractor for failing to pay the proper wages to 74 employees for their work on the Tercero II student housing project at UC Davis.

“Our investigation uncovered serious wage violations in this case," Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet said in a June 10 news release. “We believe the employer intentionally underpaid its workers."

The labor commissioner ordered the contractor, Russell/Thompson of Redding, to pay $1.3 million in wages and $200,000 in fines.

Assistant Vice Chancellor Clayton Halliday, campus architect, said UC Davis cooperated with the investigation. The cooperation included passing along certified payroll information from the contractor.

Halliday said Sacramento-based Local 64 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America had alleged that the Tercero II general contractor, Brown Construction Inc., or its subcontractors, had not paid workers fairly.

The union had asked for an investigation by the state Department of Industrial Relations, according to Halliday, who added that UC Davis also contacted Industrial Relations, to ask for an investigation and ensure that UC Davis had provided all the necessary information.

Picketers alleging unfair pay took up posts outside the job site, with an increased presence over the last month. On June 9, protesters marched through Mrak Hall.

The next day, the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (the labor comissioner's office), within the Department of Industrial Relations, came out with its news release. It declared that the state investigation "uncovered evidence which established that Russell/Thompson willfully violated the law by failing to pay proper prevailing wages on a public works project at UC Davis.” 

The news release continued: "Russell/Thompson failed to pay overtime and misclassified workers by identifying them as lower paying positions rather than higher rate skilled positions that they worked. It was also uncovered that Russell/Thompson falsified payroll records."

Julianne Nola, senior project manager with UC Davis' Design and Construction Management, said Brown Construction contracted with 84 Lumber to perform the Tercero II framing work, and, in turn, 84 Lumber hired Russell/Thompson to do the framing.

Nola said Brown's project manager informed UC Davis that 84 Lumber let Russell/Thompson go in mid-February. The general contractor then took over the framing work, Halliday said.

The labor commissioner said her office had issued a civil wage and penalty assessment in an effort to collect the money owed to the workers. The commissioner's office issued similar assessments against Brown Construction and 84 Lumber.

The Tercero II project, along La Rue Road south of the Dairy Barn, will provide space for nearly 600 student beds in three, four-story buildings. Construction is due for completion in August. Student Housing reserves are paying for the $1.6 million project.