91视频

An Oregon City flagging company owner threatened his whistle-blowing workers with violence, according to a complaint filed last week by Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian.

The Bureau of Labor and Industries claims Evan Williams fired employees as retaliation for revealing wrongdoing by his company, and prevented other employees from doing the same, among other alleged unlawful business practices.

Williams is connected to corporate entities named Tri-Star Flagging LLC, A D Traffic Control LLC, Portland Flagging and others.

鈥淭here’s a whole list of names that are essentially the same company,鈥� BOLI spokesman Charlie Burr said. 鈥淎nd several of them have already been placed on the debarment list.鈥�

The matter will now move through BOLI’s bureaucracy 鈥� going first to the civil rights division, where investigators will look for 鈥渟ubstantial evidence.鈥� If found, the parties would have another opportunity to settle in a conciliation phase. If no agreement is reached, BOLI’s administrative prosecution unit would look to bring the case before one of BOLI’s administrative law judges. The judge could send a final order to the labor commissioner. In this instance, because it was Avakian who filed the initial complaint, the order would go to BOLI’s second-in-command, deputy director Christie Hammond.

BOLI has already recovered $104,000 in fringe benefit wages for 37 Tri-Star employees who worked on the Sellwood Bridge replacement project.

Another BOLI decision against Williams is pending; the agency late last year sought $94,000 in penalties for failure to fully pay workers on the bridge project, as well as intentional filing of inaccurate payroll records. BOLI added Tri-Star to the list of businesses ineligible to work on public projects in Oregon.

Burr said most investigations of this nature last between four and six months. BOLI is statutorily obligated to finish them within one year.

Avakian, Oregon’s labor commissioner since 2008, has now filed eight civil rights complaints.