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The City Comptroller's office announced a settlement with United Staffing Solutions, which agreed to pay more than $640,000 in owed prevailing wages, interest and civil penalties to 54 clerical staffers at city medical facilities. Above, Comptroller Brad Lander at an event honoring longtime city workers.
A staffing company that failed to pay prevailing wages must compensate more than $644,000 to dozens of clerical employees who worked at several medical facilities across the city, according to a settlement announced by the City Comptroller’s office.
After an investigation, the Comptroller Office’s Bureau of Labor Law found that United Staffing Solutions, Inc., a Manhattan-based health care and education staffing agency, did not pay prevailing wages or provide supplemental benefits required under prevailing wage laws to the 54 employees from April 2015 through August 2018.
The employees worked at more than two dozen city health facilities, including Metropolitan Hospital Center, Jacobi Medical Center and the Stapleton Family Health Center. Although the secretaries, clerks and receptionists were temporary employees, they were still covered under prevailing wage laws, the comptroller's office found.
The probe prompted the bureau to file a lawsuit against United with the city Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings last April. United Staffing settled the case following a hearing before an OATH judge, agreeing to pay $644,032.81 in back pay, interest and civil penalties.
“United Staffing willfully underpaid fifty-four medical office workers their hard-earned wages under the City’s prevailing wage laws,” Comptroller Brad Lander said in a statement. “My office will fight for every prevailing wage worker employed or contracted by the City of New York to ensure they get the money and benefits they deserve.”
The comptroller’s office determined that this was United Staffing Solutions’ first willful prevailing wage violation, and if the company willfully violates the law again within the next six years, the city will prohibit United from being awarded a city contract for a five-year period.
“As a result of this settlement, fifty-four workers will receive back wages that are years overdue — including one worker who was shorted nearly $30,000,” said Claudia Henriquez, director of workers’ rights at the Bureau of Labor Law. “The Bureau of Labor Law is committed to protecting workers' rights and holding City-contracted employers accountable.”
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