A Boston University-contracted painting company agreed in August to pay $75,000 in wages and fees to current and former employees after allegations surfaced concerning the company’s less-than-adequate payment practices.
The Fair Labor Division of the Attorney General’s office began investigating Wilder Painting Contractors, Inc. in May 2007 after receiving complaints from employees who said they did not receive overtime payment despite working more than 40 hours per week.
The Attorney General’s office found that between April 2006 and June 2007, Wilder did not adequately pay 67 of its employees for their overtime work. Wilder agreed to pay $65,000 to the 67 workers and $10,000 to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The $75,000 payment was not enough for District Council 35 International Union of Painters and Allied Trade, whose members passed out flyers Wednesday encouraging students to call President Robert Brown to sever ties between the university and Wilder.
“We want to bring to the attention to the President of BU that you need to check the people you are contracting,” organizer at District Council 35 Antonio Hernandez said.
Hernandez, who was outside of Myles Standish Hall handing out flyers, estimated that 90 percent of painting company’s workers are immigrants, which he said is a large reason workers are afraid to go to their bosses when they are not paid. Hernandez said that most painters receive between $9 and $15 per hour for their work and do not receive overtime, pension or health care.
“We’ve got laws that we live by and they use us and abuse us and they say if you don’t do this, we’ll call immigration on you. Well, they can’t do that,” Hernandez said.
Jim Snow, director of organization at District Council 35, said the group hoped that passing out flyers to students would promote awareness at BU.
“I think it would be great if there was more of a consciousness on the campus,” Snow said.
Bob Wilder, who owns Wilder Painting Contractors, said District Council 35’s flyers were misleading and said the company fixed all issues regarding their payment policies.
“We are a non-union company,” he said. “The flier they sent out was not accurate. We found out about the problem and voluntarily changed the matter.”
BU spokesman Colin Riley said the Office of Facilities Management and Planning looks at the price and performance of companies before hiring them.
“The primary criteria used in selecting outside contractors are quality of work, timeliness of performance and competitive pricing,” Riley said in an email.
When issues regarding the university’s employees emerge, the university examines the problem and makes sure appropriate measures are taken, he added.
“We are confident that the procedures in place within the Office of Facilities Management and Planning are adequate to evaluate vendor services and to appropriately provide monitoring of compliance, while providing high quality, reasonably priced services to the University community,” Riley said.