Ambler Subcontractor Did Not Pay Foreign Workers Fair Wages: Feds

AMBLER, PA — A Montgomery County subcontractor specializing in building swimming pools throughout the region illegally and drastically underpaid Mexican employees who had come legally to the United States, authorities said.

GSI Pool Finishes, based on Mathers Road in Ambler, owes employees more than $384,000 in back wages for 56 workers from Mexico and three from America, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found.

“These vulnerable workers left their home country to come to the U.S. to work under conditions clearly defined by the H-2B visa program," the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division District Director Jim Cain, in Philadelphia, said in a statement. "They deserve every protection that comes along with those promised conditions."

The Mexican workers were in the United States as part of an H-2B program which guaranteed them fair pay.

"The employer illegally paid the workers, hired as cement masons, a piece rate not at least equal to the applicable required offered wage rate," the Department of Labor order reads.

In addition to underpaying the workers, the Ambler business did not offer housing, as the law stipulates. They also failed to conduct drug tests and criminal background checks, despite claiming they would in job advertisements, officials said.

Further, they misclassified worker positions, listing several workers as yard helpers, truck shop helpers, and warehouse helpers, according to the Department of Labor. GSI Pool Finishes was only certified to hire cement masons.

In addition to the back wages, the company owes $67,649 in civil money penalties and $50,470 in travel expenses to workers.