Worker advocates allege wage theft at Edina apartment project site

A group of workers  involved in the construction of an Edina apartment project allege wage theft against a Minneapolis-based real estate developer's subcontractor.

An organization representing the workers says on March 1, three former employees at a Solhem construction site filed complaints with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry alleging wage theft against PK Property Services, a subcontractor for Solhem, which built The Fred, a large apartment complex in Edina. 

The workers who filed the complaint against PK Property Services had been part of the post-construction clean up crew. They allege they are owed back wages in unpaid overtime. 

MPR News calls to the company for comment have not yet been returned. 

One former worker, Socorro Cruz, says she cleaned kitchen cabinets and vacuumed up debris. MPR News reviewed her paystubs, including one two-week pay period when she worked 120 hours. The check did not appear to pay her overtime. 

Through an interpreter, Cruz said she was underpaid.  

“We wouldn't always see all the hours that will be reflected and then if we worked like four hours over time, we wouldn't get the overtime pay,” she said. “And then often we also wouldn't receive our pay stubs to be able to see our hours.”

Cruz said one human resources staffer seemed upset because she wanted to get her pay stubs. 

She said the person told her, “pay stubs don’t mean anything. I don’t know why you are asking for pay stubs.”

The pay stubs showed she had a different employer, one that she hadn’t heard of. Both companies are registered to the same person, according to Minnesota and Florida records. 

Cruz eventually was able to secure her stubs.

Surprisingly, Cruz says she received a letter in December informing her the company did not have any record of her employment.

She hopes the Department of Labor and Industry complaint will help her get her back pay.

A separate group of five workers filed liens last fall on The Fred apartment project after they hadn’t received their pay. Two weeks after they filed the liens, they and four other former workers were repaid. 

The workers had to survive five to nine weeks without pay. In total, the nine workers received just over $41,000, according to Center of Workers United in Struggle, better known by its Spanish acronym CTUL. 

That was a long two months for Galdina Sanchez, a hardware installer on The Fred. Sanchez, who is a single mother, said her adult son had to help her and a younger sibling.

"During that time that I wasn't paid, I had to look for different types of support. We would go to churches to be able to ask for free food or we would have to figure out how to put things together," she said through a translator.

“It just threw us out of balance,” Sanchez said.

She became emotional when she finally received her pay.

“I felt happy because this was money that I had earned from my labor,” she said. “It’s sad because I’m not the only one.”

According to the Department of Labor and Industry, employers must pay all wages, including salary, earnings and gratuities earned by an employee at least once every 31 days.

CTUL will hold a labor action event on Thursday in front of Solhem’s headquarters in Minneapolis. The labor advocacy group will try to deliver a letter asking the company to join its Building Dignity and Respect program. The initiative aims to hold local developers to a standard where the human rights of workers are advanced, the group says. 

Solhem has not responded to calls for comment from MPR News.  The company has denied the allegations of wage theft. 

However, in a letter to the Edina City Council, Solhem Companies acknowledged that “regrettably” payments to some workers were delayed. 

“The issue was invoice timing,” reads the letter. “The General Contractor paid per normal terms at the conclusion of work, but lien filings delayed the subcontractor’s payment to workers.”  

The letter goes on to say Solhem follows all laws and applicable regulations.

“Our reputation is stellar,” it says. “We are proud of the company we’ve built.”