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All Temperatures Controlled, Inc., Issue No. 4

April  2002

The Contractors Critic
All Temperatures Controlled, Inc
Reporting on Safety, Productivity, and Honesty in the Construction Industry.

Temporary Workers, Law Suits & Liens

DOES THE "TEMP" IN ALL TEMPERATURES CONTROLLED STAND FOR TEMPORARY WORKERS?

Labor Ready, the infamous temp agency for construction workers that is mired in hundreds of law suits, is apparently on the verge of forcing All Temperatures Controlled to settle the Labor Ready court suit that was filed against All Temperatures Controlled just over a year ago, in September of 2000. The suit charged that All Temperatures Controlled had failed to pay Labor Ready for the laborers’ wages that were supplied to All Temperatures Controlled.

This suit should be extremely embarassing to All Temperatures Controlled, since All Temperatures Controlled’s advertising materials touts the experience of All Temperatures Controlled’s workers. "Our General Sheet Metal Division is highly skilled ... our technicians (have) fifteen years experience," boasts one All Temperatures Controlled brochure.

This suit should be extremely embarrassing to All Temperatures
Controlled, since All Temperatures Controlled’s
advertising materials touts the experience of All Temperatures
Controlled’s workers.

The Labor Ready court suit casts doubts on All Temperatures Controlled’s claims of maintaining a work force of highly trained and experienced workers. In fact, the filing of this case raised questions about whether All Temperatures Controlled simply hired whomever Labor Ready sent over.

Since LASER originally reported on the filing of this unique case, the judicial net regarding the Labor Ready debacle has widened. In a related case, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company sued the State of California and its Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, All Temperatures Controlled, and Labor Ready. Non-payment of prevailing wages was one of the issues in the legal brawl between All Temperatures Controlled and Labor Ready.

The Travelers Casualty and Surety Company suit was filed against All Temperatures Controlled, Labor Ready and the State of California in July 2001. This new complaint charged that Labor Ready was a subcontractor and supplied workers to All Temperatures Controlled for the Pierce College Energy Conservation Retrofit Project.

But one of Travelers Casualty and Surety Company’s obligations was to issue performance bonds to the City of Los Angeles for that job. Those bonds obligated Travelers to make up any unpaid wages on that job.

And sure enough, The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement sent a letter to Travelers in June 2001, stating that the Labor Ready supplied workers were owed almost $40,000 in wages.

Traveler’s became nervous that Labor Ready and All Temperatures Controlled were about to claim that Traveler’s performance bonds should go to pay the State of California for the prevailing wage claims. So Traveler’s struck first, suing Labor Ready, All Temperatures Controlled and the State of California.

This new suit was merged into the original Labor Ready V All Temperatures Controlled suit as a "related action" in December 2001. Frontier Insurance was also a party to the original Labor Ready suit.

APPRENTICESHIP COMMITTEE FOUND GUILTY OF
APPROVED STANDARDS VIOLATIONS

The Air Conditioning Trades Association Unilateral Apprenticeship Committee (ACTC) is the training program that All Temperatures Controlled has been participating in and using on public works projects.

On July 19, 2001, the administrator of apprentice ships for the State of California, who is the Director of the Department of Industrial Relations, found that ACTA Apprenticeship Program used Local Educational Agencies (LEA’s) not approved by DAS, violated its approved standards by not following the procedures established for selection of apprentices, and violated its approved standards by recruiting and accepting enrollments of apprentices outside of the four counties set forth in its approved standards – the counties of Merced, Stanislaus, Mariposa and Tuolumne.

The Director of the Department of Industrial Relations ordered the ACTA program to comply in all respects with its standards as approved by the California Apprenticeship Council, cease and desist from using any apprenticeship selection method not set forth in its approved standards, cease and desist from utilizing selection methods that result in the recruitment or enrollment of apprentices outside of the counties of Merced, Stanislaus, Mariposa and Tuolumne, and cease and desist from using local educational agencies that are not set forth in its approved standards.

Not only has the ACTA Apprenticeship Program been found guilty of these violations so that the Department of Industrial Relations had to order them to stop, they are not even complying with this decision telling them to stop. What this means is All Temperatures Controlled can no longer legally use apprentices recruited or enrolled in the Los Angeles and greater Los Angeles area.

As of publication, All Temperatures Controlled has not made any suggestions or refuted any of the information in this publication.

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