FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Press Contact: Linda Paris, Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, 202-308-5186, [email protected]
Washington, DC—In January 2025, a group of Latino construction workers announced that they reached a $370,000 settlement agreement to resolve their wage theft and misclassification claims against
E&J General Construction, Inc. and Long Fence Company, Inc.
Five workers alleged that E&J, and Long Fence through its business relations with E&J, shorted them of the required federal, state, and local overtime and minimum wage rates and misclassified them as independent contractors, despite controlling all aspects of their work. The workers alleged that they regularly worked 45 – 50 hours a week assembling and installing fences for residential construction worksites in Maryland and the District of Columbia, but took home wages well below minimum wage and overtime requirements. While E&J and Long Fence did not admit liability or wrongdoing, the settlement is a significant victory for the workers.
Wage theft is a form of fraud that happens when employers pay less than the minimum wage or do not compensate employees properly for working over 40 hours within a week. Wage theft is a contributing factor to the racial income gap. Latino workers are more likely to experience wage theft, especially in industries that are already marked by lower hourly salaries, unpredictable hours, and poorer working conditions. The DMV has high levels of job segregation, with Black and Latino workers likely to hold occupations that require manual labor that pay lower wages and are particularly vulnerable to wage theft and other workplace violations.
“Overtime and minimum wage violations are far too common in the construction industry,” said Adam Breihan of Murphy Anderson PLLC. “Workers have the right to demand that they be paid in accordance with the law, as our clients did in this lawsuit. We are proud of the settlement our clients were able to achieve through mediation.”
“Our clients refused to be taken advantage of, and we are thrilled to have supported them in their fight for justice,” said Sarah Bessell of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.
The Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs works to create legal, economic, and social equity through litigation, client and public education and public policy advocacy. While we fight discrimination against all people, we recognize the central role that current and historic race discrimination plays in sustaining inequity and recognize the critical importance of identifying, exposing, combatting, and dismantling the systems that sustain racial oppression.
Murphy Anderson PLLC is a Washington D.C.-based law firm representing workers, whistleblowers, and unions.