Minnesota: Landmark case seeks enforcement of state prevailing wage law
By Workday Minnesota
According to Workday Minnesota, workers are suing over the enforement of outdated, Depression era prevailing wage laws which are determined, as The Heritage Foundation points out, to be completely flawed and skew the market in favor of one group over another.
MINNEAPOLIS - In a first-of-its-kind case, three construction workers have filed a public interest lawsuit against an Owatonna electrical contractor for allegedly not paying prevailing wage on state-financed construction projects.
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The suit, filed in Minnesota State Court in Blue Earth County, seeks to enforce a law that protects the quality and safety of public construction projects by requiring contractors to pay the prevailing rate of wages and benefits to employees.
The lawsuit against Cole's Electric, Inc. of Owatonna, Minn. is the first ever in the state and one of the first in the nation, said Brendan Cummins, an attorney with Miller-O'Brien-Cummins who is representing the workers. The Minnesota Legislature made the suit possible when it amended the 34-year-old prevailing wage law in 2007 to include a private attorney general provision. In so doing, Minnesota lawmakers empowered workers to sue companies that compromise the public trust by not paying prevailing wages on state-financed projects...click to continue.
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