Company Failed To Pay $140K For Oceanside, Merrick Projects: Nassau DA

MINEOLA, NY — A Suffolk County asbestos removal and demolition labor company and its executive leadership were charged for failing to pay more than $140,000 to employees for projects at the Merrick and Oceanside school districts, prosecutors said.

Nicholas Barnett, 48, president, BJA Renovations Corp., of North Babylon; Dana Petrizzo, 44, vice president of the company; Joseph Demasco, 67, a manager at the company; and BJA Renovations Corp. were arraigned on three counts of failure to pay the prevailing wage under the labor law.

The company and its President were also charged with falsifying Unemployment Insurance Contribution returns with New York State resulting in a shortfall to the State’s Unemployment Insurance coffers of over $60,000, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly.

"BJA Renovations Corp. and its executive leadership allegedly cheated workers out of more than $140,000 of their rightfully earned wages across multiple public work projects in Merrick and Oceanside, undercutting their salary and benefits by as much as $37 per hour," Donnelly said.

DA Donnelly said that, according to the charges, between June 2019 and November 2019, BJA Renovations Corp. was performing work on public work projects at the Merrick Union Free School District as a subcontractor at the Birch School, Roland A. Chatterton School and Norman J. Levy Lakeside School.

Additionally, between June 2021 and September 2021 the company performed work on a project at the Oceanside Union Free School District, specifically at Oceanside High School. Payroll records filed with the school district, and allegedly signed by Petrizzo, recorded a rate of pay of $44.00 per hour for Hazardous Construction Laborers and $37.44 an hour for Construction Laborers. Employees were allegedly paid $35.00 per hour in cash and sometimes by check, Donnelly said.

The defendants pleaded not guilty and were released on their own recognizance. They are due back in court on June 17. If convicted, they face up to 1-1/3 to 4 years in prison.