Ecuadorian Worker Cheated Out Of NYC Wages Finally Gets Paid

NEW YORK, NY — An Ecuadorian worker cheated out of thousands of dollars in New York City wages will soon get the money he's owed thanks to the city comptroller and his nation's consulate, officials announced Thursday.

"We will always go the extra mile — or miles — to connect workers with the wages that they are rightfully owed," Comptroller Scott Stringer said in a statement. "Regardless of the policies coming out of Washington D.C., my office will not allow the exploitation of immigrant workers."

In 2016, Stringer's office found Long Island-based East Port Excavation & Utilities Contractors had shorted workers $212,000 by paying them less than the legal prevailing wage for concrete and paving work.

The company was banned from bidding for city and state contracts, and most of the scammed employees got their money shortly after the comptroller's office recovered it last year, officials said. But one who was owed more than $40,000 in wages and interest had already returned to Ecuador, his home country, Stringer's office said.

The comptroller's office said it found the man, who worked on several projects in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, in the capital city of Quito with help from his former labor union. The checks were issued after months of paperwork and communication and given to the Ecuadorian consulate to deliver in its official "diplomatic pouch," which is used to ship important documents, the comptroller's office said.

The money was sent yesterday and should get to the worker in a few days, a spokeswoman for Stringer said.

"Thanks to the efforts of the Comptroller's office and because an immigrant worker had the courage to tell his story, today we can celebrate that a compatriot of ours will receive fair compensation for his honest work," said Ecuadorian Consul General Linda Machuca in a statement.

East Port is among 50 contractors who took advantage of workers that the comptroller's office has debarred since 2014. The office said it has also paid more than $12 million to workers cheated out of wages and assessed more than $27 million in prevailing wage violations in that time.

(Lead image: City Comptroller Scott Stringer and Ecuadorian Consul General Linda Machuca worked to return $40,000 in back wages and interest to a worker in Quito. Photo courtesy of Comptroller Scott Stringer's office)