A Keene roofing contractor has paid $167,101 in back wages to 20 foreign temporary workers who didn’t receive proper payment, the U.S. Department of Labor said in a news release Monday, July 15.
A settlement between the department and The Melanson Co. (owned by Illinois-based national roofing company Tecta America) also requires the company to pay $28,829 in civil penalties, the release said. A labor department administrative law judge approved the settlement on June 17, according to case documents.
The company classified the workers, who were employed through the federal H-2B nonimmigrant program, as roofer helpers when they were in fact doing roofing work, according to the department.
“By doing so, the employer failed to pay correct prevailing wages, which led to additional violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act when the Keene contractor calculated overtime wages based on the incorrect wage rate,” the release said.
“The Melanson Company’s illegal employment practices shortchanged workers’ wages and gave the company an unfair advantage over their competitors who pay H-2B nonimmigrant workers properly,” Steven McKinney, a Manchester-based director with the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, said in the release.
“The Wage and Hour Division is committed to ensuring H-2B workers receive the wages they are owed and that employers who use the H-2B program employ workers in the job classifications for which they petitioned.”
The company released a statement Monday morning saying there is “significant overlap of daily duties and tasks performed” by roofers’ helpers and roofers.
“We cooperated fully, paid all subsequent back wages and penalties, and consider this matter closed,” the statement says.
Under the H-2B program, employers temporarily hire foreign workers with a temporary work permit to perform non-agricultural labor or services in the U.S. The Melanson Company began participating in the program in 2022, the company said in its statement.
“In the normal course of business, we were selected to be audited by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division for the years 2022 and 2023,” the statement reads. “We were examined in 26 different areas of investigation, of which 25 had no violations or findings.”
The company’s alleged violations of the visa program’s provisions occurred between Feb. 4, 2022, and Dec. 1, 2023, according to a document filed with the labor department in May.
The Melanson Company says on its website that it employs more than 300 people and provides construction services, including roofing, suspended ceilings, drywall and HVAC duct work for customers in southern Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, eastern New York and Vermont.”
— RICK GREEN/KEENE SENTINEL
