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Leaders from Minnesota’s property services union, SEIU Local 26, said they have uncovered instances of potential wage theft from three different Minnesota companies.
“Wage theft is a serious breach of trust, something that no one thinks could ever happen to them,” said Jen Guertin, an officer at St. Paul Regional Labor Federation. “When an employer willfully chooses to steal from its employees…it's a blatant crime.”
Union leaders said they looked into three different Ramsey and Hennepin County subcontractors and uncovered some $700,000 in unpaid wages.
Jhonnier Gazo works for one of the subcontractors at buildings owned by Ramsey County. He said he took an offer to do janitorial work at several Ramsey County worksites where he was paid $18 an hour. A union representative, whom he met while taking out the trash let him know that, according to current prevailing wage policy, he should have been making $27.80 an hour.
“I came to this country to work — honest work — and I deserve the same honesty from my employer,” Gazo said. “Although I’m afraid of losing my job, I am not afraid to raise my voice.”
Current Hennepin and Ramsey County prevailing wage policy sets minimum wages that factor in benefits like PTO, retirement and health insurance. When employers don’t provide extra benefits, they are required to add the cash equivalent of those benefits to hourly wages.
Union officials said they’ve uncovered evidence of companies failing to follow these requirements.
“Wage laws were put into place to make sure employees are paid a living wage, that they have protection from bad bosses. An employer that breaks this agreement is literally breaking the law. These workers deserve every cent that they have earned. They've worked so hard, they need to be made whole,” Guertin said.
Gregory Murphy, who works for one of the subcontractors, said his company has not compensated him for unpaid benefits.
“We have no benefits, no health care, no vacation time, nothing,” Murphy said. “My co-workers and I work hard and deserve every dollar we earn… this is not fair, and we will not stay silent.”
Two of the companies did not respond to MPR News’ request for comment, but the owner of one company said it was not withholding wages from workers.
“That’s not true. There are no open investigations that I’m aware of,” the owner said. “These are blanket allegations.”
MPR News is not naming the companies until more details of the investigation are made public.
When questioned about the matter, Ramsey County said it was conducting an investigation on which it “could not comment” and the Hennepin County Attorney office said it was “aware of the allegations” but unable to comment.
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