EP Flooring Company Fined for Underpaying Workers

An East Providence construction company hired as a subcontractor for a state project at the University of Rhode Island will pay a fine of $210,000, $70,000 in back wages and other penalties after it violated state labor laws by underpaying workers, according to state authorities.

The state Department of Labor and Training also found that Mancieri Flooring Co. falsified tax forms to hide the fact it was not paying proper prevailing wages to its workers who performed removal and installation work at URI from 2012 to 2014.

The DLT’s Prevailing Wage Unit conducted the investigation and the company’s owner, Kevin Mancieri, failed to appear.

The investigation concluded that Mancieri paid an hourly wage of $12.50 to $25 per hour to 17 employees, “much lower” than the prevailing wage rate he reported on his certified payroll records, according to a DLT news release.

Mancieri also misclassified its 17 workers at independent contractors and “continued a pattern of deceit in falsifying payroll records spotted earlier by the U.S. Department of Labor in a separate federal prevailing wage project.”

Mancieri supplied false 1099 tax forms to the state for employees “to try to hide that it was not paying the proper prevailing wages,” the DLT said.

Along with the back wages and civil penalties, Mancieri also must pay a $51,000 misclassification penalty.

Governor Gina Raimindo said that denying workers a fair day’s pay hurts workers and all of the companies in the state that follow the rules.

“Ensuring that workers get a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work is one of the ways we will help everyone make it in Rhode Island,” Raimondo said.

DLT Director Scott Jensen said that workplace fraud enforcement has become a top priority for his agency.

“Governor Raimondo has made workplace fraud enforcement one of our top priorities,” said Jensen. “We have strengthened our team that works on misclassification violations and continue to increase the effectiveness of our new Workplace Fraud Unit to bring more employers into compliance and protect workers.”

Photo: Patch file photo by Mark Schieldrop.