Hearing Examiner Affirms Office of Labor Standards Finding Newway Forming, Inc. and Baja Concrete USA Corp. Responsible for Egregious Labor Standards Violations at Three[...]

Contact Information
Cynthia Santana
Phone: 206-256-5219
Email: [email protected]

Hearing Examiner Affirms Office of Labor Standards Finding Newway Forming, Inc. and Baja Concrete USA Corp. Responsible for Egregious Labor Standards Violations at Three Seattle Construction Worksites

Financial Remedies Surpassing $2 Million Dollars

Seattle, WA (May 6, 2024)- The Office of Labor Standards (OLS) announces the Office of Hearing Examiner's Findings and Decision affirming the OLS Director's Order against Newway Forming, Inc. and Baja Concrete USA Corp. The decision was issued on March 26, 2024.

The original finding was executed August 25, 2021. The OLS investigation determined that Baja Concrete USA Corp. (Baja Concrete), Newway Forming Incorporated (Newway Forming), and two individuals acting as employers violated Seattle's Minimum Wage, Paid Sick and Safe Time, and Wage Theft Ordinances. The total financial remedy was $2,055,204.10 to 53 affected workers and $170,786.20 to the City of Seattle

The violations occurred between February 2018 and August 2020. At the end of its investigation, OLS found Baja Concrete, Newway Forming, and the two individuals acting as employers to be jointly and severally liable for the violations. The Hearing Examiner affirmed the OLS Director's Order finding that Baja Concrete and Newway Forming were joint employers. The Hearing Examiner reversed the Order regarding the two individuals and found that one of those individuals was not an employer, but a Superintendent of Newway Forming, Inc., and the other individual was an employee or agent of Baja Concrete.

The violations included:

• Regularly deducting funds from employee paychecks without the employees' authorization;
• Failing to provide employees with Paid Sick and Safe Time;
• Failing to pay employees the minimum wage;
• Failing to pay employees for all hours worked; and,
• Failing to pay employees overtime wages or provide sufficient meal and rest breaks.

The employees nominally worked for Baja Concrete, but OLS found that Newway Forming controlled many aspects of their employment. The employees sometimes worked up to 19 hours in a day without the required number of meal periods and rest breaks and performed significant amounts of overtime labor without receiving any overtime premium pay.

"In my personal experience, living through so much oppression, exploitation, and fear, and receiving threats of deportation was challenging. The company did not care about my physical or mental health. For them, I was not a human being, I was just a number. I didn't have a right to speak or demand anything because they had control of my life. The physical and psychological damage that they caused me is irreversible," said a worker. "While I feel very happy about the decision, I am also quite afraid of what might happen to us or our families if there is any retaliation. I thank the City of Seattle and all the others who helped me in this process of seeking justice. I hope that, in the future, workers who decide to leave their family or country in search of a better future will not be taken advantage of by their employer or live through the fear and threats I lived through."

In the 33-page Findings and Decision, the Hearing Examiner stated, "Newway was complicit in efforts to blend Newway and Baja Concrete workers into a single employee workforce. For example, Newway attempted to but never terminated the practice of Baja Concrete workers signing in at safety meetings as Newway employees." Also, "Newway reviewed time sheets and otherwise worked closely with the management and control of the employees with Baja Concrete to such a degree, that Newway was clearly intentionally benefiting from Baja Concrete's improper handling of payroll for the employee's vis a vis overtime, sick leave etc."

The Hearing Examiner further noted, "Baja Concrete significantly controlled workers' lives in many aspects away from the Denny Way job site and to a lesser degree at the job site. Baja Concrete controlled the worker housing, transportation to and from the job site, dictated if a worker could go to work or not, at least in some cases took their personal documentation, purchased items required by Baja Concrete and Newway for the workers, and deducted the cost of these items (rent, transportation, tools, clothing, etc.) from the workers' paychecks without authorization from the workers." Additionally, "Rent was deducted from nine of the Workers' pay stubs regularly, irrespective of how many workers lived in the apartment. Almost all of the Workers testified through an interpreter, and most indicated they had come from outside the United States. Therefore, the degree of control exerted by Baja Concrete over workers' lives was far more extreme than it would have been for workers if they spoke English and/or were citizens of the United States. The nature and control of the employees by Baja Concrete was extreme."

"This is a precedent-setting case that builds on OLS' remarkable record of getting to the root cause of labor law violations by identifying the parties that are truly setting the terms of the employment relationship and holding them responsible. It provides a powerful example for labor standards enforcement agencies across the country as they pursue their own joint employer cases," said Professor Janice Fine of Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations and Workplace Justice Lab.

Baja Concrete, a Florida corporation, and Newway Forming, a Canadian company with a local office in Lynnwood, Washington are respectively concrete finishing and concrete forming companies operating in Seattle.

"The Hearing Examiner's finding confirms the accuracy of our investigation, marking a substantial victory for construction workers in an industry plagued by labor standards violations," said OLS Director, Steven Marchese. "Vulnerable, low-income workers are frequently exploited and face intimidation in the workplace. Instances like those uncovered in this investigation are severe, and we hold offending businesses accountable for fully compensating affected employees. True justice will only be achieved when each of these workers receives the rightful remedies owed to them."

Both companies petitioned for a writ of review in King County Superior Court.

For more information on Seattle's labor laws contact the Office of Labor Standards at http://www.seattle.gov/laborstandards or call 206-256-5297.

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Office of Labor Standards, Source: Labor Standards

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