A manager at an asbestos removal and demolition company has been sentenced for underpaying workers on public school projects in Merrick, shorting more than 40 employees of over $80,000 in legally required prevailing wages, Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said.
Joseph Demasco, 67, of North Babylon, pleaded guilty March 14 to felony failure to pay the prevailing wage. He was sentenced this week to five years’ probation and ordered to pay $81,592 in restitution. Demasco is also barred from working on public works projects in New York state for five years.
Prosecutors said Demasco oversaw wage violations while BJA Renovations Corp. worked as a subcontractor on multiple projects in the Merrick Union Free School District between 2019 and 2021, including at Birch School, Roland A. Chatterton School and Norman J. Levy Lakeside School.
“Joseph Demasco treated our state’s prevailing wage laws as a suggestion, consistently underpaying workers on public projects,” Donnelly said. “This gross exploitation of the people who build our communities will be prosecuted, and those responsible will be held accountable.”
According to the district attorney’s office, certified payroll records submitted to the Merrick district listed hourly rates of $44 for hazardous construction laborers and $37.44 for construction laborers. In reality, workers were paid $35 an hour, largely in cash. During that period, New York state’s prevailing wage rates were $52.70 per hour in wages and benefits for hazardous material laborers and $68.96 for construction laborers.
Prosecutors said weekly payroll was delivered to Merrick job sites by Demasco or company president Nicholas Barnett, who also served as a site supervisor.
The investigation also found discrepancies in state tax filings. In early 2020, the company reported paying about $52,900 in wages to 15 employees for a three-month period in 2019. Certified payroll records for the same timeframe showed more than $185,000 paid to workers, including employees not listed on the return, resulting in a $63,036 loss to the state’s unemployment insurance fund, authorities said.
The case also involved similar wage violations on a 2021 project at Oceanside High School in the Oceanside Union Free School District.
Barnett pleaded guilty in March to misdemeanor failure to pay the prevailing wage and falsifying business records and was sentenced in May to three years’ probation and a five-year debarment from public works. Vice President Dana Petrizzo pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and received a conditional discharge. BJA Renovations Corp. was sentenced to a three-year conditional discharge and barred from public works for five years.
State Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said the case underscores New York’s commitment to enforcing prevailing wage laws and protecting workers on publicly funded projects.
