A Montgomery County agency says a living wage law for county contractors could use some new requirements to make it easier to enforce.
The question came up last year during a three-week strike by workers for Gaithersburg-based Potomac Disposal, a trash and recycling pick-up contractor for the county that serves throughout, including in areas of Bethesda and Chevy Chase.
An initial payroll investigation by the county’s Department of General Services found 22 violations in 390 payroll records. Potomac Disposal and the workers have since entered into a collective bargaining agreement. The living wage law does not cover workers under a collective bargaining agreement.
The workers claimed the company threatened them with immigration enforcement after an unsuccessful negotiation for healthcare insurance and better wages. According to the Mid-Atlantic Region of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), trash collection truck drivers were making between $120 and $130 a day, while those who load trash into the trucks were making between $60 and $70 a day.
That would put the trash loaders below the current living wage of $13.95 per hour. In 2002, the county approved a living wage law that requires workers for county contractors to be paid a minimum wage based on the area’s Consumer Price Index.
The county’s Department of General Services started an audit to investigate the allegations that Potomac Disposal was not abiding by the law. Workers at Unity Disposal, another county-contracted sanitation company, also went on strike.
On Thursday, DGS will report to the Council’s Government Operations Committee with its findings and suggest new penalties for contractors that don’t submit payroll forms on time.
A Council questionnaire asked DGS if changes to the law were needed to help enforcement:
Implementing penalties for late payroll submission and other forms of enforcement may help motivate contractors to comply. The Prevailing Wage Law serves as a good model to ensure that workers are justly compensated for their efforts. The Living Wage Law should give the Director the ability to assess penalties for non-compliances, such as late payroll submissions and under-payments.
DGS estimated there are typically 400 county contracts subject to the living wage law. But it’s up to the contractor to file payroll reports about workers covered by the law. DGS said it has been receiving 50 to 200 reports each quarter.
DGS recieved 12 complaints about non-compliance since the law was enacted in 2003, including one about Potomac Disposal in 2007 in which DGS did in investigation. Potomac Disposal initially didn’t provide sufficient payroll records, DGS said. DGS said Potomac later provided those records and was determined to be in compliance.
Others were determined to be in violation and paid up. A Burtonsville landscaping company was determined to be in violation of the law in 2009 and retroactively paid $22,000 to employees. In another case, an audit of Cruz Cleaning Services found the company in violation of the law. DGS said the company did not make up for the lost wages, so the county terminated its contract in 2005.
The sanitation strike led to some delays in trash and recycling pick-ups, though the company assured Montgomery County that all scheduled pick ups would be made.
Photo by Nicole Duarte via Twitter
