Following an alleged bribery attempt, the New Hampshire Department of Labor has fined a Massachusetts construction firm more than $77,000 for work at two job sites, including Tuscan Village in Salem.

RPCL Construction repeatedly did not provide the department with documentation on who was working at the sites, what their employment status was and how much they were being paid.

According to the inspection report, Rogelio Perez, vice president of the company, offered to pay an inspector $28,000 to “make this situation go away.”

The DOL, pushed in large part by the efforts of Joseph Donahue, New Hampshire business representative of Interior Systems Union 352, targets independent contractors as laborers, thereby avoiding paying for unemployment and workers’ compensation insurance.

“It’s the worst I’ve seen it in 20 years,” said Donahue. “They are getting pretty flagrant to actually try to bribe an inspector.”

Rudy Ogden, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Labor, would not comment about specific bribery allegations in the inspector’s report, but said that, in general, bribery is a criminal matter that is referred to local law enforcement.

Ogden said that the DOL conducted repeated inspections and levied relatively high fines because there was no evidence that RPCL was following the law. The company had paid an earlier fine, he said, but he did nothing to address the issues in the complaint.

— BOB SANDERS