DiNapoli (Richard Drew, Associated Press)
A report from the office of the New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli shows that a Brooklyn non-profit underpaid mentally disabled workers for years. The organization, Shorefront Mental Health Board, has not complied with state prevailing wage laws and has falsified certified payrolls in order to cover it up.
DiNapoli’s auditors estimate that the Shorefront Mental health board may have underpaid their employees by as much as $123,224 during 2013, a figure that is likely to rise after taking into account the lack of supplemental and other benefits to which workers were entitled from the time that Shorefront’s contract began in November 2011.
Shorefront was contracted until March 2014 to supply 26 janitors to work at several locations in Brooklyn and Staten Island as part of the part of the State Office of Mental Health’s (OMH) “Buy OMH” program, a statewide workplace initiative established to facilitate and improve the employability of New Yorkers with a psychiatric disability.
Even after a disciplinary meeting with DiNapoli’s officials in January 2014, Shorefront management attempted to conceal their duplicity by falsifying the hours on the payrolls they were required to submit to the OMH. They continued to cheat employees out of the correct wage by paying them for fewer hours than they had actually completed, telling workers to submit blank time sheets that would supposedly be filled in accurately by management. The audit found that one worker who completed a total of 72 hours in January 2014 and should have been paid $2,201.04 received just $600.34. These inconsistencies were present throughout Shorefront’s payroll documents.
In his report, DiNapoli said:
New York state law requires contractors working for the state to pay the prevailing wage rates and fringe benefits set for the locality where the work is performed, but my auditors found numerous violations committed by the Shorefront Mental Health Board. This contractor unconscionably cheated disabled employees out of thousands of dollars. OMH needs to take immediate action to make sure contractors follow the law to protect all workers.
The audit also shows that the Chief Operating Officer of Brooklyn Brite (a d/b/a of Shorefront) made a weak attempt to justify her group’s actions, claiming:
…the workers were “technically earning the prevailing wage rate because they work at a very slow pace due to their medical conditions and medications. He stated that it consequently takes them three times longer than a professional cleaner to complete the same task, and therefore, he pays them for the equivalent amount of work.”
The audit suggests the following actions be taken by the Office of Mental Health in order to ensure such abuses do not occur again:
OMH should:
1. Develop and implement procedures to ensure all contractors comply with the prevailing wage law. Such procedures should include, but not be limited to:
• Enforcing the requirement that contractors submit certified payrolls and making sure that
they are accurate;
• Formally reviewing certified payrolls and other related documentation as needed to ensure that payments to workers are correct; and
• Promptly addressing issues of non-compliance with contract requirements and other
regulations and documenting the actions taken.
2. Work with the Department of Labor to determine the amount of back wages and benefits due to workers for the periods that they were underpaid.
