Drywall contractor T&A Construction, LLC will pay a total of $225,000 in penalties and compensation to resolve wage misclassification claims with the DC District Attorney’s office.
In an Oct. 17 statement, Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb said the contractor will pay $100,000 to “workers who were previously misclassified as independent contractors” and $125,000 in penalties to the District.
“The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) won’t allow companies to profit at the expense of their workers—or gain an unfair advantage over their competitors by flouting the law,” Schwalb said.
“We are committed to protecting DC workers, ensuring collection of DC taxes, unemployment insurance premiums and workers’ compensation payments, and ensuring a level playing field for all District businesses. Community tips are a critical part of these investigations, and I encourage anyone who believes that a District business is violating workers’ rights to contact our office.”
T&A is based in Dumfries, Virginia.
“An OAG investigation revealed that between 2018 and 2021, T&A improperly retained subcontractors to supply workers for projects across DC, and these subcontractors improperly misclassified scores of construction workers as independent contractors rather than properly classifying them as employees,” the statement said.
“As a result, these workers were deprived of paid sick leave and other work benefits. This misclassification affected construction workers at the following worksites: 2000 L Street NW, One M Street SE, 1515 New York Avenue NE, Washington, and 655 15th Street NW.
“T&A stopped these misclassification practices in 2021 and now relies on workers properly classified as employees.”
“T&A is prohibited from doing business with the subcontractors that misclassified workers on the above listed worksites without OAG’s approval,” the statement says.
The full settlement agreement is available here.
