A group of elected civil servants, workers and construction workers held another press conference on Tuesday and extended their campaign to request the adoption of a law on project employment agreements in public school construction projects.
The event that was carried out Norman J. Levy Lakeside School aimed to condemn corruption in construction projects in the Merrick School District And other public school districts on Long Island. The Merrick district is one of more than a dozen public school districts in Long Island, in which the contractors were recently pursued by a criminal law due to non -payment of taxes and exploitation of employees, as can be seen from a explanation of the group.
Spokesman for the press conference have highlighted two contractors who were pursued this year by the district prosecutor's office in Nassau, and a third contractor who remained undiscovered to the Merrick School District.
Last month, the same group of officials organized a press conference at the Uniondale High School and mentioned the indictment against the masonry based in Bronx, which was arrested in July and charged in a 14-member complaint, for years to pay for years.
The participants of the press conference said that the school districts of Long Island awarded the projects financed by state taxpayers for several million dollars to contractors who have been found guilty From wire fraud, wage theft, it failed to complete the insurance and employee compensation based in New York, and even refused to hire local workers. They said that the crimes and the lack of supervision had cost taxpayers millions of dollars and robbed workers from hundreds of thousands of dollars.
At both press events, the officials called for the exploitation of the Stop Worker to Public Education. Converted state legislation to create a project employment contract (PLA) between the Long Island Public School Districts and the local building agencies to ensure that construction projects are assigned to responsible contractors based in New York, the local workers employ.
Organizations and individuals involved in the press conference on Tuesday Construction and construction management council of Nassau & Suffolk Counties; Mason Tenders' district council of New York and Long Island; Long Island Federation of Labor; Senators of the New York State Mario Mattera, Monica Martinez and Jack Martins; The members of the New York State Assembly, Judy Griffin, Mike Durso, Chuck Lavine, Ed Ra, Michaelle Solage; Construction workers and victims of wage theft.
“The New York public education system should strengthen our workforce and do not weaken it through unfair construction practices. As we have seen here in Merrick and all over Iceland, taxpayers can subsidize to building contractors without reform, which shorten and shorten employees”, Martinez, Senior Co-sponsor of the head of the Stop the exploitation of the workers in the public education law, said in a written declaration. “The exploitation of the law on the exploitation of the employee in the public education law will change by protecting employees, saving taxpayers and keeping pupils and employees safe during and after the construction. Saying this legislation means safer schools, stronger local jobs and more respect for taxpayers.”
Martins added that Plas provide school districts with the certainty that they need when planning construction work, including protection against unexpected surprises that can derail a project.
“They also ensure that well -paid jobs go to hard -working New Yorkers and do not go out of the state,” said Martins. “At a time when many families have to struggle with affordability in our state, it has never been more important to support our local workforce. This is a win-win situation.”
Solages who sponsored the measure in the State Assembly, said: “W.Hen contractors defraud workers, they cheat the entire community. Our students, our schools and our local economy are deprived of the misclassification of workers and the abuse of public funds. For this reason, the Long Island delegation pushes to project employment agreements for school districts to ensure that every tax dollar builds high -quality schools and supports fair, rightful employment. “