Centre County construction company Glenn O. Hawbaker faces another class-action lawsuit
One of the largest employers in Centre County was tagged Wednesday with a class-action lawsuit for the second time in the past six months.
Three longtime Glenn O. Hawbaker employees accused the major construction company of violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
The federal law sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established retirement and health plans in private industries to provide protection for those in the plans.
The allegations could date back to September 2012, a longer period than the previous lawsuit or the criminal charges the company pleaded no contest to, attorney Mike Donovan said.
“Instead of putting all of the prevailing wage workers’ retirement funds into the profit sharing and 401(k) account for the worker who actually earned it, GOH stole that money and used it to pay for all GOH employees’, executives’ and owners’ retirement savings,” Donovan wrote in the 39-page lawsuit. “As a result, the company’s prevailing wage workers have been left with — and continue to be left with — vastly short-changed profit sharing and 401(k) accounts.
The company that averages about $285 million in work annually pleaded no contest in August to four felony counts of theft. The heavy equipment contractor agreed to pay more than $20 million in restitution.
The money is expected to be distributed to nearly 1,300 people.
Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor accused the company of systematically violating state and federal prevailing wage laws on taxpayer-funded public infrastructure projects. Attorney General Josh Shapiro called it the largest case of its kind nationally.
The company pushed back against the lawsuits in a written statement Thursday.
“Throughout this process, Hawbaker has fully cooperated because we always believed we were following all laws. Our belief is supported by state and federal regulators, who reviewed our practices for years,” the company said. “We resolved our issues with the Office of Attorney General. As a part of that resolution, we are working proactively with the corporate monitor appointed by the court to meet our restitution obligations under the agreement with the attorney general’s office. We will vigorously defend any of these allegations.”
Hawbaker’s legal battles don’t end there.
The state Department of Transportation launched an ongoing effort in September to prevent the company from doing state work for up to three years.