By Claudia Irizarry Aponte, THE CITY

Three construction firms subcontracted by city agencies and Con Edison failed to pay workers their full required wages so have agreed to pay six figures in back pay and penalties, under settlements announced by Comptroller Brad Lander Thursday.

The city comptroller also penalized a Brooklyn apartment developer and ordered the firm to provide $90,000 in back pay and civil penalties for failure to pay prevailing wage and supplemental benefits to two workers in a building that receives property tax breaks.

The four settlements, which were pursued by the comptroller’s labor law bureau, cover 18 workers and total a combined $525,000 in back pay, interest and civil penalties.

More than half of that stems from a single case dating back to 2016 against a Department of Parks and Recreation contractor that failed to pay the prevailing wage to six workers — and falsified payroll records. That company, Champion Electrical Mechanical Builder Group Corp., agreed to pay $295,900 in back wages and civil penalties and is banned from working on city government projects for five years, according to the terms of the settlement with the comptroller’s office.

Prevailing wages and benefits are

Workers on public works projects often don’t know that they may be entitled to higher pay under prevailing wage standards, which makes it easy for employers to deprive them of pay and benefits they are owed by law, said Claudia Henríquez, the director of workers’ rights at the comptroller’s labor law bureau.

“We think it’s very important for the integrity of the city and the city’s contracts that these contractors are following the law,” said Henríquez. “And for workers to know that they are entitled to these wages, they are entitled to good jobs, and we want to make sure that they’re getting paid what they deserve.”

A phone number listed online for Champion Electric was disconnected. The owner did not immediately respond to a request for comment via other methods

The four investigations stemmed from referrals from city agencies and worker complaints.

rates employers must pay workers on publicly funded construction and building service projects, set and enforced by the city comptroller.

In the three years since Lander took office, the comptroller’s labor law bureau has recovered more than $9 million in unpaid wages, including the most recent settlements, according to the office.

“I am extremely grateful for the work that our Bureau of Labor Law does to recover every dollar owed to workers contracted by New York City,” Lander, who is running for mayor, said in a statement. “Especially at a time when the federal government is gutting civil service, hollowing out labor protections, and turning its back on workers, recovering $9 million in owed wages is resounding proof of our office’s steadfast commitment to fighting on workers’ behalf.”

In the three years since Lander took office, the comptroller’s labor law bureau has recovered more than $9 million in unpaid wages, including the most recent settlements, according to the office.

One worker who asked to remain anonymous only learned he was being underpaid when a union organizer visited his construction site in February 2019 and asked him about his hourly compensation. He was employed by D’Onofrio General Contractors Corp., a Con Edison contractor tasked with doing paving work on public streets in the five boroughs and Long Island.

Over the course of the conversation with the organizer, the worker and another non-union colleague learned that they were being badly underpaid. The prevailing wage standard at the time was $46 an hour.. They were earning $23 an hour, he said. After meeting with the organizer, the worker said he was fired and struggled to find work for months to support his pregnant wife.

“To let me go at that time, in February — it’s very difficult to find work that time of year, and it was a very hard time for my family,” the worker said in Spanish.

He then had words for his former employer: “So now that we won, they are going to remember us, because they were wrong. And at the end of the day, we always did the right thing and showed up to work. We never failed them but the entire time, they were harming us.”

Under the agreement with the Comptroller’s office, D’Onofrio agreed to pay $132,163 in back pay with interest and civil penalties to the two workers. The worker who spoke with THE CITY said he is set to receive about $60,000; he’d previously received an additional five-figure sum in a private settlement against D’Onofrio, he said.

A person who answered the phone for D’Onofrio did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Con Edison declined to comment.

“I feel relieved, not because of any bad faith, but I do hope they learned their lesson,” the worker added.