Construction in Texas may be "cheap," but that's only if you consider the final price of the project. In most cases, the true costs are borne by workers, taxpayers, and society at large. Case in point: WFAA's David Schecter, a quality journalist who exposed worker misclassification in a North Texas school district, this week took the time to highlight the story of Guillermo Mata.

From WFAA:

In December, Mata shattered his leg after falling from the second story onto a concrete floor at construction site in Irving.

"Take me to Parkland (hospital),” Mata recalls saying after the injury.

On a commercial renovation job in Panama City, Florida, a Hispanic drywall construction worker was electrocuted when he came in contact with electrical wires projecting from a terminal box at the site where he was working.

According to an article published in the Durability + Design Journal, “A Florida contractor must answer federal citations involving the electrocution of a Hispanic drywall worker, although the worker was paid in cash and the contractor denied knowing him.”

In her statements to police at the scene, Nathalie Monroe, President of Monroe Drywall Construction, Inc. (MDC), denied hiring, or even knowing, the deceased worker. However, in subsequent testimony from other “drywallers” on the site, it was learned that MDC had hired the four men to hang, tape and finish the 338 boards on the remodel job and was paying them in cash. Monroe later admitted that she knew the deceased and had worked with him on other jobs.

This is a classic case where even though the workers were employees, they were paid in cash by the subcontractor in order to avoid workers' compensation claims and taxes. Read more » about Dead Worker Ruled an Employee in OSHA Ruling

On today's installment of NPR's Morning Edition, correspondent Wade Goodwyn put the microscope on the Texas construction industry and what he found was disturbing. Click here to listen to the story.

From his report:

If wage theft is a nasty cousin of slavery...there's a deeper, more fundamental sickness affecting the Texas construction industry: the misclassification of construction workers as independent contractors instead of as employees.

With the Cranes and Derricks in Construction standard requiring U.S. operators to be certified by November 2014, the Crane and Rigging Conference (CRC) and Industrial Crane and Hoist Conference (ICHC) will focus on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) crane operator certification requirements.  The jointly held crane safety and management conferences will take place May 29-30 at the Indianapolis Marriott North in Indianapolis, IN.

Sponsors include the Steel Erectors Association of America (SEAA), Construction Users Roundtable (CURT), Ohio Manufacturers Association (OMA), Liebherr Group, Morrow Equipment Co, LLC, and event partner North American Crane Bureau Group (NACB).

A recent press release from Maximum Capacity Media, the conference organizer, quoted Tom Underhill, Executive Director of the SEAA who stated:

“Ongoing education is always important, but with OSHA’s November 10, 2014 deadline looming Read more » about Conferences on Crane Certification, Technology, Rigging and Safety

Earlier this year, I sat down with Gregg Reyes, President and CEO of Reytec Construction Resources, Inc., to learn about his company and how it grew from a two-person contracting company operating out of a private home to the go-to company for specialty concrete work which it has become today.  Reytec is a provider of many types of concrete excavation and structural services, specializing in underground utility work, above ground paving and structures, and site preparation for both public and private projects.

Reytec was started in 1997.  At that time, Reytec was a general contracting company consisting of only Reyes and his wife, operating out of their home, and hiring subcontractors to help complete projects.  While working on a restaurant project, Reyes met an older man who was running a concrete crew for one of the subcontractors Reyes had hired, and the two of them truly hit it off.  Read more » about Contractor Builds Business on Hard Work, Versatility, and Compassion [VIDEO]

During September of 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger killed two bills aimed at penalizing employers who commit wage theft in California.  However, he failed to win reelection, and after Governor Jerry Brown took over the post the following January, Brown went on to sign Assembly Bill 469, known as the Wage Theft Protection Act of 2011.

California’s Wage Theft Protection Act (WTPA) has been in effect since January 2012.  It added Section 2810.5 to the labor code which requires employers to provide new employees with specific information in writing at the time they are hired, including the legal name and address of the company who is hiring the new employee, the name and address of the company for whom the employee will perform work, the employee’s rate of pay, and the basis of wage payment Read more » about How To Comply With California Wage Theft Law

An industry insider who has been closely following our coverage of the payroll fraud issue raised a fascinating point recently. This executive I was chatting with put forward a theory: If construction volume is picking up, you'd think employment would go up as well. But, if so much of the workforce is misclassfied, then those workers would be in "payables," not "payroll." Or put more simply: One big reason the construction employment rate does not keep up with the volume of construction is precisely because of employee misclassification. 

Hmm...

I picked up the phone and called Ken Simonson, the Chief Economist at AGC America and new Construction Citizen blogger. Here's what he told me: Read more » about How Does Payroll Fraud Impact Reporting of Employment in Construction?

On Wednesday, February 27, over 500 construction workers and their supporters marched to the Texas Capitol to rally for better working conditions in the industry. Holding banners with facts like “Texas is the Deadliest State to Work in Construction” and “More Workers Die in Texas Than Any Other State”, these activists called for an end to the dangerous conditions and frequent legal violations that characterize Texas’s construction industry. During the day, workers and their advocates visited with every senator and representative, as well as the Governor’s and Lt. Governor’s offices, to share their experiences with workplace injuries, wage theft, and payroll fraud.

A recent study by the University of Texas found that one out of every five workers in Texas has been injured on the job and required medical attention. The study also found that construction workers in Texas die on the job at a higher rate than in any other state Read more » about Day of the Fallen 2013: Stop Injuries and Legal Violations in Texas Construction

We recently interviewed Katrina Kersch, the Acting Executive Director of the Construction Career Collaborative (C3), to better understand the origins and the current status of the overall program.

In this video, Katrina tells us that the C3 movement developed out of The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) studies in 2008 and from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projections that predicted a major shortage of mid-level construction workers in the middle of this decade. Read more » about C3 Director Describes the Program

Following the release of a University of Texas study on payroll fraud and working conditions in the construction industry, a prominent Republican businessman from Houston urged the legislature to take decisive action. Stan Marek, the Chairman and CEO of the Marek Family of Companies, called on Republicans and Democrats alike to join together to clarify the relationship between employers and their employees.

Marek pointed to the study's findings that over 40 percent of workers in construction are misclassified. "That's over 300,000 men and women," Marek said. "You're responsible for your own payroll taxes. You're paid by the piece, you're not paid by the hour. You don't get overtime if you work over 40 (hours a week) and you don't get safety training," he said. Read more » about Conservative, Republican Businessman Pushes Lawmakers to Act on Payroll Fraud in the Construction Industry