Audit reveals error in pay dispute
Muller underpaid some workers, overpaid others
Officials at Muller Construction and the Nevada Foundation for Fair Contracting have argued for weeks whether workers on a Strip construction project were underpaid or overpaid.
Turns out it’s a little of both.
A Clark County audit into Muller Construction’s payroll found that employees completing a $4 million public works contract to install hundreds of steel posts along Strip sidewalks were underpaid nearly $3,300. But they also were overpaid by almost $5,500.
“This was not something intentional. This was simply a mistake,” said Robert Kern, an attorney for Muller Construction.
Early last month, the Nevada Foundation for Fair Contracting submitted a complaint alleging employees were misclassified and not being paid for the construction trades they were performing, a violation of the state’s prevailing wage law.
The county audit found Muller “misinterpreted” state administrative code and paid its employees hourly rates corresponding with the trade they spent the longest time working in a given week. The employees should have been paid the rates for each hour they worked in each trade.
The error resulted in 14 employees being underpaid and 14 being overpaid, the audit found. There was some overlap, resulting in 10 employees being underpaid some weeks and overpaid during others.
The employee with the greatest amount of underpayments is owed about $500. Muller Construction has until close of business Feb. 5 to correct all underpayments or appeal the county’s findings. The company cannot make employees refund any overpayments.
Muller Construction has done 10 county public works projects since 2015 and not had a prevailing wage violation before the bollards project, county spokeswoman Stacey Welling said.
Nevada Foundation for Fair Contracting President Tommy White questioned whether this is the only job where the problem had happened.
Kern said Thursday 12 of the underpaid employees had received the money owed to them. Paychecks were waiting for the other two, he said.
Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.