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Construction Halted by Labor Department in North Haven

At the former site of the D’Addio’s Garden Center on Washington Avenue, construction work ground to a halt recently when stop work orders were issued by the Connecticut Department of Labor. The department issued the stop work orders to three contractors currently involved in the construction of the North Haven building, which will have a mixture of retail stores and apartments.

At press time, it looked as if the work would resume shortly.

Connecticut Department of Labor spokesman Nancy Steffens said on May 8, “Out of the three companies that received the stop work orders, two have now been allowed to resume work.”

The orders were issued against N.V. Piscitelli Painting of North Haven, Platinum Drywall of Wallingford, and Wilson Picadeneira Siding of Norwalk.

Platinum Drywall of Wallingford and Wilson Picadeneira Siding of Norwalk were issued stop orders because of failures to produce payroll records.

Platinum was also issued the order for erroneously treating employees as independent contractors, and not providing proof of workers compensation or Connecticut business paperwork.

N.V. Piscitelli Painting of North Haven was the first company to show proof of workers compensation and Steffens said, “Just this morning Platinum Drywall of Wallingford were allowed to resume work after they provided payroll records and showed proof of workers compensation coverage. They are both back at work on the site.”

Wilson Picadeneira Siding of Norwalk had yet to provide any payroll records to the Labor Department or shown any paperwork proving that it is a legitimate Connecticut company, so it has not been allowed to resume work.

Steffens said that unfortunately this isn’t an isolated incident and this type of situation happens all too often in Connecticut and many other states.

“It’s been an ongoing problem. When economies aren’t so great, it gets even worse. People are afraid to say something if they aren’t paid the correct amount or don’t have the correct coverage because they need the work,” she said.

The Connecticut Labor Department regularly holds random checks in locations around the state and also acts on tips from local towns, or employees, to make sure people are properly protected.

The majority of incidents, such as this one, are found at construction sites, Steffens said, but can also be found in a variety of other businesses.

Currently the Connecticut Labor Department has just three employees who travel around the state conducting random checks, but Steffens said they do their best to not only make sure employees and businesses are protected, but also to ensure the taxpayer doesn’t end up footing the bill for workers compensation cases.

Contact Jaki Lauper at j.lauper@shorepublishing.com with North Haven news ideas.