FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, October 18, 2024

SEN. LESSER CHASTISES ROCKY HILL DEVELOPER FOR LABOR VIOLATIONS, CHEATING WORKERS AND STATE TAXPAYERS

Stop-work orders posted Thursday at the site of the $60 million redevelopment of the former Ames department store headquarters in Rocky Hill

ROCKY HILL – State Senator Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) expressed outrage today that a number of serious labor violations have been found at the site of a large, $60 million real estate development at 2418 Main Street in Rocky Hill.

The Connecticut Department of Labor and the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection conducted a joint investigation of the site on Thursday, and nine separate subcontractors were issued “stop-work” orders for a variety of serious labor violations, including worker misclassification and maintaining no or insufficient worker’s compensation coverage.

The project is being built on the site of the former Ames department store headquarters in Rocky Hill. The original plan for the 12-acre property was to knock down the roughly 225,000-square-foot building and replace it with 213 apartments in 11 buildings, 11,067 square feet of office space and 9,959 square feet of retail.

Since the project is partly funded by Connecticut taxpayers – the developers received $999,000 in brownfield remediation funding from the state Department of Economic and Community Development – Sen. Lesser says the contractors were not just stealing from their own workers, but also short-changing state taxpayers.

“Connecticut is desperate for more housing and cleaning up blighted properties is a top priority for Connecticut. But we need contractors to bid fairly, pay their taxes and follow the law. And how are these companies paying back the State of Connecticut? By cheating their own workers and short-changing state taxpayers,” Sen. Lesser said. “I want to thank the Departments of Labor and Consumer Protection for being on top of this. I know DOL in particular has been critically understaffed. It’s violations of the public trust like this by private, profit-making companies that should prompt the legislature to increase the size of the Wage and Workplace Standards Division in the state Department of Labor.”

“The legislature may also want to consider examining our prevailing wage threshold on DECD-funded or assisted projects like this one. That threshold is $1 million. This developer was able to skirt the prevailing wage requirement on this project after receiving a $999,000 brownfield remediation grant that’s just $1,000, or one-tenth of one percent, below the threshold. We must ensure that workers are getting paid correctly and that taxpayers aren’t left holding the bag for workplace injuries because some multi-millionaire isn’t paying for workers’ comp insurance.”