FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA CONTACT:

September 10, 2009 Harry Pierre

(617) 727-2543

ATTORNEY GENERAL MARTHA COAKLEY’S OFFICE ANNOUNCES

INDICTMENT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE CONTRACTOR IN CONNECTION WITH

PREVAILING WAGE LAW VIOLATIONS

BOSTON

County Grand Jury returned indictments against a New Hampshire waterproofing contractor for

allegedly violating the state’s Prevailing Wage Laws. Stom Companies, Inc. d/b/a Premier

Caulking, Inc. (Premier), formerly of Londonderry, New Hampshire, and the company’s

corporate officer, Stephen P. Bissonette, of Salem, New Hampshire, are both charged with 12

counts each of Failure to Pay Prevailing Wages and Failure to Submit True and Accurate

Certified Payroll Records.

Premier provided waterproofing and damp proofing services on a number of public

construction projects throughout Massachusetts, and employed workers who installed

waterproofing materials on foundations, walls, elevator shafts and other vertical building

surfaces. This type of work requires payment at the masonry/waterproofing prevailing wage rate.

The Attorney General’s Office began an investigation after receiving a complaint

alleging that Premier failed to pay the required masonry waterproofers’ prevailing wage rate to

employees at numerous public construction projects across the state. The criminal investigation

arose after Premier and Bissonnette failed to comply with 12 civil citations issued during

November 2004 and March 2006, in which the Attorney General’s Office ordered Premier to pay

over $36,000 in restitution to 24 employees for unpaid prevailing wages. Under the Attorney

General’s enforcement authority, the Attorney General may seek indictments against any

employer who fails to comply with the requirements of the Attorney General’s citations issued

for wage law violations.

Investigators from the Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division discovered that during

November 2001 through May 2005, Premier and Bissonette allegedly did not pay prevailing

wages to their employees on the following Massachusetts public works construction projects:

UMass Dartmouth Dormitory project, UMass Boston Campus Center project, Crisafulli

Elementary School project, Clinton Elementary School project, Normandin Middle School

project, UMass Lowell Campus Center project, Shirley Middle School project, Westford Middle

School project, Quinsigamond Community College project, Danvers Middle School project,

Lunenburg Primary School project and the Weymouth High School project.

Investigators also allege that Premier and Bissonette, in his capacity as corporate officer,

failed to submit true and accurate certified payroll records for the same projects, by failing to

accurately report the employees’ occupational classifications.

Under the Massachusetts Prevailing Wage Law, contractors and subcontracts engaged in

public construction projects must pay their employees a special minimum wage. The required

wage rate is based on the occupational classification for type of work they perform. The law also

requires that contractors and subcontractors working on public construction projects must submit

true and accurate certified payroll records to the awarding authority on a weekly basis. These

records must contain the employees’ identities, their hourly rates of pay, the job classifications of

the work performed, and information about deductions taken from their pay.

A Suffolk County Grand Jury returned indictments against Bissonette and his company

today. They are scheduled to be arraigned on November 18, 2009, in Suffolk Superior Court.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Karla E. Zarbo, and with

assistance from Amy L. Goyer, Chief of Investigations, both of Attorney General Martha

Coakley’s Fair Labor Division.