Joseph Demasco, 67, of North Babylon, was sentenced Tuesday, Jan. 20, to five years’ probation and ordered to pay $81,592 in restitution for failing to pay prevailing wages on public works projects in Nassau County.
Demasco underpaid more than 40 employees who worked on asbestos removal and demolition projects at schools in the Merrick and Oceanside Union Free School Districts between 2019 and 2021, according to prosecutors.
He pleaded guilty in March to a felony charge of failure to pay the prevailing wage, as Daily Voice reported. As part of his sentence, he is also barred from working on public works projects in New York State for five years.
Demasco managed payroll practices at BJA Renovations Corp., which performed work at multiple Merrick schools in 2019 and later at Oceanside High School in 2021, prosecutors said.
Certified payroll records submitted to school districts listed hourly wages of $44 for hazardous construction laborers and $37.44 for construction laborers. In reality, employees were paid about $35 an hour, often in cash.
State labor law required significantly higher pay during those periods, with prevailing wage rates exceeding $50 per hour for hazardous material laborers and reaching more than $70 per hour for construction laborers, prosecutors said.
The company also underreported payroll totals to state agencies, resulting in more than $63,000 in losses to New York’s unemployment insurance fund, according to investigators.
The company’s president, Nicholas Barnett, and vice president, Dana Petrizzo, also pleaded guilty in the case, and the business itself has been barred from public works projects statewide for five years.
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