Workforce
Subcontractors Ordered to Pay Record $1.28M in Minnesota Wage Theft Case
Violations occurred at 19 job sites including the headquarters of the Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Dept. of Labor says it has recovered $1.28 million on behalf of construction workers denied overtime and other pay at 19 job sites.
Two subcontractors have been ordered to pay $1.28 million in back wages and damages to 26 workers, resolving what the Minnesota Dept. of Labor and Industry (DLI) says is its largest wage theft case on record.
Workers were allegedly denied overtime, training pay and other wages according to an investigation DLI initiated in 2023 against Property Maintenance & Construction LLC and Property Maintenance and Construction Inc. (PMC), of Brooklyn Park, Minn. and Advantage Construction Inc. of East Bethel, Minn.
“DLI’s investigation of PMC and Advantage uncovered widespread wage and hour violations on 19 separate construction projects across the Twin Cities metropolitan area,” the department stated in a press release.
Advantage Construction, owned by Chris Amiot, will pay workers $1.24 million in back wages over the next 18 months, and Property Maintenance & Construction, owned by Leo Pimentel, will pay $1,500 in damages to each of the 26 workers. Civil penalties of $26,000 for each company will be waived after three years if no more violations are found.
The violations occurred between March 4, 2019 and June 5, 2022, including at Viking Lakes, a mixed-used development in Eagan, Minn., southeast of Minneapolis-St. Paul. It was developed by MV Ventures, the real estate arm of the Minnesota Vikings on an approximately 200-acre former Northwest Airlines campus at I-94 and Dodd Road. It includes the Vikings’ headquarters and training facility along with multifamily housing, retail, office, entertainment and other spaces.
“These cases are complex, but we were committed to recovering every dime owed to these impacted workers,” said DLI Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach in a press release. She added that the workers are each owed tens of thousands of dollars.
