Nevada solar plant workers get nearly $2 million in back pay

Federal labor officials have landed almost $2 million in unpaid compensation for workers at a solar-panel plant near Tonopah, though a project executive says nothing underhanded occurred.

The U.S. Department of Labor said today it recovered about $1.91 million in back wages and fringe benefits for 147 workers of subcontractor Proimtu Mmi-NV LLC, which the agency said is based in Henderson and provided construction services at the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Plant.

Department officials have distributed almost $1.79 million to 126 employees. The remaining $126,000, for 21 other employees, will be distributed as soon as the department can locate the workers, spokesman Leo Kay said.

The 1,600-acre solar project, roughly 220 miles northwest of Las Vegas in Nye County on land leased from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, received a $737 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy in fall 2011.

“The money we’ve recovered for these workers is not a windfall — it is their hard-earned pay that their employer was legally obligated to pay them but did not,” David Weil, administrator of the department’s Wage and Hour Division, said in a news release. “Companies that benefit from federal funding must see to it that the money is used properly and that their workers are compensated according to the law.”

Investigators found that from June 2013 to April 2014, Proimtu failed to pay workers the correct wages and fringe benefits for their job duties, the labor department said.

The company allegedly paid general laborers rates to workers who “routinely performed duties in skilled trades such as ironworking, electrical work, painting or bridge crane operation,” the department said. The workers should have been paid up to twice what they received, according to the department.

Proimtu now properly classifies its workers and pays them correctly, the agency said. The company also agreed to “raise awareness” about wage requirements with other employers at Crescent Dunes.

Proimtu could not be reached for comment.

The company had office space at 2850 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway in Henderson, according to a listing online, but a woman who answered a call to the posted number said Proimtu was no longer located there.

Kevin Smith, CEO of project developer SolarReserve, said that as part of the federal loan guarantee, workers’ pay rates had to conform with U.S. labor law and that federal officials got to approve the job classifications.

Proimtu’s workers assembled heliostats, or billboard-sized computer-controlled mirrors. That job classification didn’t exist, Smith said, so the subcontractor picked another one in “good faith.” The workers were paid around $30 per hour, Smith said.

According to Smith, Energy Department officials were fine with the classification, but the Labor Department, which has the final say, was not. That department said the workers should have been listed as steelworkers, and as a result, should have been paid around $60 per hour, Smith said.

The contractors finished their work at Crescent Dunes roughly six months ago. Smith said he agreed with the original job classification and that it’s unfair to imply that Proimtu broke any labor laws.

“You’re talking about a new job classification that didn’t exist anywhere,” he said of heliostat work.

SolarReserve, based in Santa Monica, Calif., is the majority owner of Crescent Dunes. It also has investments from two Spanish companies — construction-services firm ACS Group and banking powerhouse Banco Santander.

Construction is finished, and electricity generation is expected by the end of the year, SolarReserve spokeswoman Mary Grikas said.

The plant, with more than 10,000 heliostats, will be able to power up to 75,000 homes during peak electricity periods, according to SolarReserve.

Under a 25-year deal, the company plans to sell all electricity generated at the plant to Las Vegas-based NV Energy, Nevada’s main electric utility.

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