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builders agree to give workers back pay By
Jonathan J. Higuera The
Arizona Republic
More than 135
construction workers
received back pay Tuesday after two home
builders agreed
to pay them directly and bypass their former employer.
In an arrangement brokered between workers'
advocates and the home
builders, the home builders
paid $300,000 in back
wages to 200 workers, but
only 135 had collected.
The workers earned the wages while working for Veemac Corp., a
Scottsdale
framing company, which had done contractor work for
Richmond American Homes
,
U.S.
Homes and other Valley home
builders.
The workers received checks ranging from $80 to $7,000. The average check was about $1,500.
Some Veemac workers
said they had not been paid since April 30 after the company,
which opened in 2005, ran into financial problems. Many workers
said they kept working because they were told they would
eventually be paid.
Veemac has
maintained throughout the controversy that the problem stemmed
from Richmond American's and U.S. Homes'
unwillingness to
pay for completed work.
Some workers started complaining in June to a local Spanish-language radio station, which took up the workers'
cause.
The number of
workers
claiming they were owed back
pay exceeded 200. But only 135 signed waivers and accepted checks
Tuesday. An additional 70 either had not been contacted or had
not come in to
sign release forms.
"Those
who haven't signed forms, can still get it by coming in and
signing the lien release," said Joel Foster of the
Service Employees International Union, which got involved in
the case on behalf of the workers.
One of the
two home builders, U.S. Homes,
said it decided to
pay the workers directly instead of Veemac because of the contractual
dispute with Veemac.
"No
question we have an ongoing dispute with Veemac, but we wanted
to make sure the workers
were paid," said Mark Sustana, general counsel of Lennar
Corp., parent company of U.S. Homes.
"We'll deal with the Veemac dispute separately."
The other home
builder, Richmond American Homes,
paid back wages
for about 95 of the 135 workers.
The company had no comment on the case.
Veemac
attorney Greg Eagleburger said they are happy the workers
are getting paid, but the crisis was caused by the home builders not
paying Veemac promptly for completed work.
"If they
would have paid Veemac, it would have paid its workers
and suppliers," he said.
Veemac Chief
Executive Officer John Vergopia said his firm plans to sue the home builders
over breach of contract. It has also filed liens on the houses
it framed.
He added that
other workers
for Veemac, such as office-staff personnel, have not been paid
in four weeks.
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