By GHS Posted Jun 10, 2008 @ 11:58 PM

Daily News Tribune

BOSTON -

John D'Agostino, of Newton, his son Romeo D'Agostino, of Needham, and their company, D'Agostino Associates, Inc., were assessed $12,970 in penalties as well as over $2,800 in restitution for failing to pay the prevailing wage to 14 employees.

Attorney General Martha Coakley's office has issued three citations for the transgressions at three public construction sites.

The Prevailing Wage Laws require that certain minimum wage rates, as set by the state Department of Labor, be paid to all employees working on public works construction projects. The Prevailing Wage Laws allow all contractors bidding on public works projects to enjoy a "level playing field" by standardizing the rate of pay the workers will earn.

In June 2006, the Attorney General's Fair Labor Division received a complaint that D'Agostino Associates had failed to pay the prevailing wage to employees working at the East Fairhaven Elementary School project in Fairhaven.

A subsequent complaint filed in August 2007 alleged that the company had also failed to pay the prevailing wage at the M.J. Kuss Middle School public works project in Fall River. Investigators from the Attorney General's Office reviewed the company's certified payroll records and discovered that the company failed to pay employees a total of over $2,200 on those two projects.

Investigators from the Attorney General's Fair Labor Division also conducted an audit of the company's payroll records for the Franklin Department of Public Works Building Project after a complaint was received in March 2007.

Authorities discovered that D'Agostino Associates owed back wages totaling over $500 on the Franklin project as a result of failing to pay the correct prevailing wage to the employees on that work site.