Labor Ready agreed to implement a nationwide program to train its job placement employees about laws that require payment of at least the “prevailing wage” rates to workers on public work projects, including construction or maintenance of public buildings, the New York Attorney General’s office announced. Labor Ready will also pay $10,000 in restitution to two workers and pay $10,000 in penalties.

Labor Ready is a brand of industrial staffing firm TrueBlue Inc. (NYSE: TBI).

In summer 2012, Labor Ready’s Hempstead, N.Y., branch office dispatched two workers to a school construction site in Bellmore, Long Island, without identifying the job as a public work project, according to the Attorney General’s office. Instead of paying the required prevailing wage rates, Labor Ready paid the workers $8 per hour. Federal and state prevailing wage laws seek to ensure that contractors on government projects pay wages and benefits that are comparable to the local norms for a given trade, typically well above the minimum wage.

In addition to the violations related to these two employees, the Attorney General’s office said its Labor Bureau investigation found Labor Ready job placement employees at the Hempstead branch office were inadequately trained about prevailing wage requirements and that Labor Ready overall lacked an effective system to ensure that its job placement staff could appropriately identify prevailing wage jobs. Labor Ready has previously been cited and/or investigated for violations of state and federal prevailing wage laws in, among other locations, Oregon, Missouri and Illinois, according to the Attorney General’s office.

“Labor Ready sends thousands of workers to a wide range of worksites across New York State every year. While we regret that there was an error and two people were mis-paid, we are pleased that the 17-month investigation uncovered no other issues,” TrueBlue said in a statement.

“Prevailing wage rate law is complex and can be difficult to apply. Labor Ready's job placement employees are trained on complicated wage and hour laws, and we will use this opportunity to review and improve our training. The value of working with Labor Ready and other reputable staffing firms is that we protect our workers. We will continue to use our resources to protect them and provide them with a valuable bridge to employment,” the company said.

According to the Attorney General’s office, Labor Ready also agreed to:

• Require employers seeking workers in New York State to certify they will comply with the law.
• Not work with employers who Labor Ready knows are subject to an unsatisfied court or agency decision concerning unpaid wages.
• For prevailing wage jobs, Labor Ready will not place employees at any companies which are on publicly available debarment lists.
• Establish a system for remedying prevailing wage violations in a timely fashion, including through payment of back wages to affected workers, or face considerable fines.