Three construction workers who performed construction work for Barton Malow, an international construction contractor, have filed a lawsuit against that company and others alleging that they and others similarly situated worked significant overtime hours without being paid at the required time and a half overtime rate. Barton Malow has been the general contractor on numerous construction projects in Virginia and elsewhere. The workers in the lawsuit, which was filed on August 31, 2022, are represented by The Kaplan Law Firm and Handley Farah & Anderson.
The complaint by three workers explains the lawsuit:
“Violations of wage and hour laws, including failure to pay required overtime, are widespread in the construction industry in Virginia and neighboring jurisdictions. In many instances contractors use labor brokers—entities with little or no resources whose purpose is to provide construction workers to contractors—in an effort to escape liability for such violations. This is such a case. One of the Defendants, MBA Construction Inc., is a labor broker that is run out of its owner’s or principal manager’s home in rural Virginia. Another defendant, Barton Malow Company, is a major international construction contractor, with annual revenue of over $3 billion. Barton Malow used MBA to obtain long-term workers instead of hiring those workers itself. Under state and federal law, however, contractors are liable for wage and hour violations where they exert such control over the labor broker-provided workers that they are, as a matter of law, joint employers of those workers. This is such a case. Consequently, all Defendants in this case are liable for the failure to pay overtime to the named plaintiffs and to many others similarly situated.”
The case is Garcia, et al. v. Barton Malow Co., et al., It alleges violations of federal and Virginia law and was filed in the Richmond division of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
A copy of the Complaint is here.