A contractor from Southampton has been indicted for failing to pay the prevailing wage to his employees, underpaying them by over $83,000.
Between March and August 2018, Robert Terry was a contractor at the Davis Park Marina Improvement project, a public works contract that required the contractor to pay his employees the proper prevailing wage rate, based on the tasks that they performed on the project. Additionally, he was responsible for completing certified payrolls that affirmed he paid his employees the proper prevailing wages while they worked on the project.
Instead, Terry allegedly classified his employees under the wage rate for “laborers,” which is lower than the wage rate for “dock builders,” although the employees were performing tasks necessitating the higher salary rate.
Moreover, even though additional employees of Terry Contracting & Materials, Inc. worked as crane operators on the project, they were allegedly unlawfully omitted from the certified payrolls. After an investigation, New York State Department of Labor determined that Terry and his company owes the employees $83,694 for failing to pay them as dock builders.
On December 12, 2024, Terry, 65, and his corporation, Terry Contracting & Materials, Inc. were arraigned on the indictment before Supreme Court Justice, Timothy P. Mazzei for one count of willful failure to pay the prevailing wage rate and supplement, first-degree falsifying a business record, both Class E felonies, and second-degree falsifying a business record, a Class A misdemeanor.
Mazzei ordered Terry to be released on his own recognizance because his charges are considered non-bail eligible under current New York State law, meaning prosecutors cannot ask for, and judges cannot set, bail. Terry is due back in court on January 23, 2025, and faces one-and-a-third to four years in prison if convicted on the top count.
“This defendant allegedly pocketed money that would have gone to his workers and their families,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. “We will not allow unscrupulous business owners to enrich themselves by cheating workers out of their legally mandated wages on taxpayer-funded projects.”