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BOLI announces fines for subcontractor on park project

By: Jeff McDonald//August 7, 2014//

BOLI announces fines for subcontractor on park project

Jeff McDonald//August 7, 2014//

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Salem-based Green Thumb Landscaping and Maintenance Inc. has been fined $20,303 by the Bureau of Labor and Industries for a total of six , including an intentional failure to pay overtime and prevailing wage rates to 10 employees.

The fines are related to the subcontractor’s work on Portland Bureau of Parks & Recreation’s Fields Neighborhood Park project in the Pearl District in Portland, where Green Thumb worked from August 2012 to November 2013, said Charlie Burr, ‘s spokesman.

“They were skirting prevailing wage laws by mis-classifying and under-classifying work that workers were performing,” Burr said.

BOLI’s investigation took nearly a year after the bureau received the initial complaint about the company because the owners of Green Thumb failed to provide the necessary payroll and employee contact information for several months, Burr said.

The bureau eventually issued a subpoena in order to obtain the records. But even then, the paperwork submitted to BOLI included inaccurate information about workers’ hours and pay for the project, Burr said.

One employee, for example, was left off the company’s certified payroll record and was misclassified on salary instead of prevailing wage rates. Another employee complained about not receiving daily lunch and rest breaks. The company failed to track those records as required by Oregon law.

Over the past several years, Green Thumb has paid more than $70,000 in fines and back wages to BOLI for unpaid wages. The company also has operated under several different names during that time, including Green Thumb Yard Maintenance Inc., Green Thumb LLC, and Green Thumb and Maintenance Inc., according to BOLI.

During the next six months, BOLI will determine whether Green Thumb will need to pay additional penalties on top of the back wages, Burr said. The process, which would involve a hearing, also could make Green Thumb being ineligible to work on public projects in Oregon for up to three years.



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