WAGE WARRIORS

A day in the life of HUD's Office of Labor Relations

A day in the life of HUD's Office of Labor Relations

SEATTLE - These are tough times for wage-earners. The cost-of-living goes up, but real wages head down. Household budgets get stretched. Bills go unpaid. Families are stressed. Conversations around the kitchen table get pretty testy.

It's why raising the minimum wage and establishing a living wage are hot topics these days. People work harder and longer to get ahead, but just fall farther behind. Polls say many Americans no longer believe the American Dream works for them.

Wages are a hot topic at HUD, too, especially among the 50 employees of its Office of Labor Relations. Their job is to make sure workers on Federally-funded construction projects are paid what, by law, they're due, an honest day's wage for an honest day's work.

Most employers subscribe to that principle. Inadvertently or not, some don't. Like a dry wall subcontractor recently found by HUD and charged by the U.S. Department of Labor, says The Oregonian, for shorting seven workers $89,525 in prevailing wages they were owned under the Davis-Bacon Act and $8,557 for overtime pay they should've received under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Employers who break those laws, said Thomas Silva of Labor's wages and hours office in Portland, "they cheat their employees and gain an unfair advantage over competing employers who obey the law." They're also ripping-off taxpayers.

And that's when they come to the attention of Eugene Hairston, Melanie Hertel or Brian Sturdivant, each a Federal Labor Standards Enforcement Officer with HUD in Seattle. They're charged with monitoring the wage practices of contractors and sub-contractors for the 50 or so HUD-assisted and insured construction projects underway on a typical day in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington State.

"I come to work every Monday knowing I have a job that matters," says Brian who once directed the City of Tacoma's labor standards office before joining HUD seven years ago as a community planning and development representative. "The standard's pretty black-and-white. You either pay the workers what they've earned or you don't. Simple."

"Wage fraud," he adds, "is a huge and, I'm afraid, growing problem. If employers can get away with misclassifying workers, ignoring the prevailing wage, or cheating on overtime, they can pocket thousands of dollars, dollars that should have gone into their employees' pockets. We make sure that doesn't happen."

Brian and his colleagues spend a lot of time answering contractors' technical questions, conducting training workshops and, especially, poring over payroll records from HUD-funded projects. They're looking for patterns, tell-tale signs that workers aren't getting their lawful due. Lots of laborers but few skilled craftspeople on a job. Significant amounts withheld from paychecks for unspecified or "other" benefits. Projects where no one ever earns overtime. "Sounds like drudgery," Brian adds. "But then you spot something, a mystery to be solved and justice to be done."

Eugene Hairston agrees. He's been with HUD for 25 years, 15 as a Labor Standards Officer. He recalls a visit to a housing authority that, by mistake, had underpaid some of its workers. "As I left," he says, "four employees stood at the door to shake my hand and say thanks. It was almost as good as my grandmother's blueberry cheesecake."

Where there are rewards there also are risks. Like a construction site he once monitored, speaking first with a worker operating a backhoe. "What do you get paid?," Eugene asked. "10 bucks an hour," the worker said, the prevailing rate for an unskilled laborer. "But driving a backhoe is a skill," Eugene responded, "worth $38 an hour." Within a few minutes he'd spoken with three other workers, also misclassified, also underpaid.

About then the housing authority director drove-up, jumped out of his car, loudly demanding that Eugene "get out of here. We're doing everything right." "Apparently not," Eugene replied, showing the signed statements from the four workers. "If the sub doesn't make good and the prime doesn't make good," Eugene warned, "your housing authority will." The director's mood changed, the matter was quickly resolved, the workers were paid.

Melanie Hertel has spent 15 of her 22 years at HUD as a Labor Standards Officer. Yes, she's felt threatened too. "Serious money's involved and whenever there is you'll find someone who wants to skim some off the top," she explains. "Lots of contractors and subs comply with the laws" she adds, "But like any profession, there are some bad apples."

"You either love the job or you're buried by it," she says. "I love it. No two days and no two cases are ever the same." But times have changed, she notes. "When I first started the back-wages we were collecting were used by workers to buy a car or take a vacation. Now the dollars are going to unpaid bills, diapers, putting food on the table. Real stuff."

Every year Eugene, Melanie, Brian and their colleagues at HUD in partnership with Labor ferrets-out and collects hundreds of thousands of wages workers are owed. "If we catch them, we'll nail them" - that's what taxpayers want, workers deserve, HUD's Office of Labor Relations does.

Some say its government over-reach, interference with the free market, harassment of small businesses. Only if you believe that bank robbery is nothing more than another way to make ends meet.

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