Overview
Cohen Milstein represents construction workers in a class action case brought against Elite Wall Systems LLC and multiple general contractors that retained Elite, in a wage theft action involving numerous construction projects across Maryland and Washington, D.C.
The construction workers claim that Elite has engaged in an unlawful scheme to steal their wages by: (a) misclassifying them as independent contractors rather than as employees; (b) failing to pay required overtime wages; and (c) failing, on certain public works projects, to pay workers the required prevailing wages for their work.
The workers claim that Elite cheated its employees out of a fair wage through this manipulation of the labor market, enabling Elite to gain significant market share by undercutting law-abiding businesses.
Case Background
Elite Wall Systems is a construction subcontractor that works on construction projects throughout Maryland and the District of Columbia. Elite is hired by general contractors, including the defendants Gilbane Building Company, Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, HITT Contracting, Inc., and Suffolk Construction Company, Inc., to complete specific, time-sensitive construction projects.
The construction workers claim that Elite’s wage theft scheme involves misclassifying workers and failing to pay them the required wages in some of the most high-profile construction projects in the greater District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area for well over a decade. Some of the projects included university buildings, public schools, downtown D.C. hotels, and the MGM National Harbor Casino.
The plaintiffs further claim that Elite cheated hundreds of workers out of a fair wage directly and as a result of this manipulation of the labor market. Furthermore, the plaintiffs allege that construction contractors that played by the rules lost contracts because of Elite’s unlawful pay practices.
The plaintiffs also claim that Elite misrepresented to the governments of Maryland and D.C. that its employees working on public works projects were paid correctly. Taxpayers were cheated out of tax revenue by the naked misclassification of Elite’s employees.
This lawsuit is brought under Maryland Workplace Fraud Act (MWFA); the Maryland Wage and Hour Law (MWHL); the Maryland Wage Payment and Collection Law (MWPCL); the Maryland Prevailing Wage Statute (MWPCL); Maryland Prevailing Wage Statute (MPWS); the D.C. Workplace Fraud Act, D.C. Code (DCWFA); the D.C. Minimum Wage Revision Act (DCMWRA); and the D.C. Wage Payment and Collection Law (DCWPCL).