State files lien against Moses Lake company for workers' wages

Claim alleges $95,827.81 is owed to workers

MOSES LAKE - A lien filed by the state Department of Labor and Industries alleges a Moses Lake-based company didn't pay the correct prevailing wage to about 26 workers on a public project.

The total amount of underpaid wages is believed to be $95,827.81 for work done from 2005 to 2006 on the Quincy Fire and Life Safety Building, according to court documents filed April 7.

Legacy Construction Group Inc. was named in court documents as the company on the project.

Workers on public projects are required by law to receive the state's prevailing wage.

Legacy's Seattle attorney Garth Schlemlein claims his client "paid the appropriate prevailing wage" for the work.

Schlemlein said he believes the state's claim is connected to an unresolved case filed last year in Grant County Superior Court against his client on behalf of five former Legacy workers who believed they should have been paid in the higher wage class of ironworkers.

He said the ironworkers union tried to convince his client to become a signatory to the union and added the initial case was "a failed effort to unionize my clients."

The organization REBOUND later allegedly arrived at the Quincy job site to interview Legacy employees about their job tasks and wages paid, court documents state.

REBOUND is a Seattle-based organization that ensures workers on public works jobs are paid prevailing wages, according to REBOUND's Web site.

The 26 workers listed in the state's lien are reportedly owed varying amounts, ranging from $107 each to $14,000 each, said Heather Leibowitz of the state Attorney General's Office.

The state hasn't issued a violation notice against Legacy and the company could still appeal any future decision, she said.

The five workers in the initial case against Legacy were reportedly hired to erect a prefabricated pre-engineered metal Garco building, said their Auburn attorney Saphronia Young.

A demand letter asking for wages was sent, but Young said she didn't know the amount of the wages. Court documents didn't state a specific amount being sought by the five workers.

Young said she interprets a Washington State Department of Labor and Industries' opinion of the work as stating that her clients should have been paid at the ironworker rate with few exceptions.

She also claims her clients weren't paid for all of the hours they worked and she alleges that certified payrolls didn't necessarily coincide with her clients' pay stubs.

Young said her clients aren't union members and aren't interested in joining a union.

She also said that Schlemlein incorrectly accused REBOUND of being an "organizing arm of the union."

"That is Mr. Schlemlein's special theory," she said.

A "Union Yes" logo is shown on REBOUND's Web site.