Solar construction project workers compensated after being paid unfair wages
ILLINOIS(KBSI) – The Illinois Department of Labor says they have successfully recovered thousands of dollars in unpaid wages to workers.
The Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) is cracking down on wage theft. Jason Keller is the Assistant Director at the Illinois Department of Labor. He shares how their department is working to make sure all workers in Illinois receive fair wages.
“The prevailing wage law is set up and has been a long-standing practice and I believe it was enacted in 1941 but it’s there to protect local contractors and local workers so that tax dollars are spent locally and to help those that are paying the tax dollars” says Keller.
According to Keller IDOL recently recovered more than $85,000 owed to workers in Saline County involved in a Solar Constuction project. Keller says the workers were employed by a publicly funded project but were not compensated properly.
“The determination was that approximately 17 workers were employed under a construction project in Saline County” says Keller “and so we post our wage rates by classification on our website and contractors on public work sites are expected to follow those wage rates.”
In addition to the recovered wages IDOC also collected more than $17,000 in penalties from D&D Electric LLC, IDOL says the contractor was responsible for the violations. Keller shares their department will continue to crackdown on wage theft.
“It’s not limited to just construction projects” says Keller. “There’s wage theft that happens in Illinois that’s why we enforce that law, so workers have an avenue to pursue justice.”
Keller shares that their department works closely with contractors to share the importance of knowing accurate wage information.
“In fact we are going to be holding webinars later this month to help contractors understand the prevailing wage law and we do so regularly, so we really work with a lot of people to be in compliance with the law and not just be computative.”
This comes as part of the state’s broader effort to ensure that workers on government backed projects are paid fairly and in accordance with the law.
“We are here in the State of Illinois” says Keller. “We are enforcing this law, and we will pursue justice when the proper wage rates aren’t paid to workers.”
