Investigation into Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc. can continue, Centre County judge rules
Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor and Industry may continue to investigate and potentially penalize a major construction contractor that’s one of the largest employers in Centre County, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Centre County Judge Julia Rater found the 2021 plea agreement between Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc. and state prosecutors allows the probe into potential violations of the state’s prevailing wage law to march forward.
Investigators asked the business in September to explain why the company and two of its executives should not be found in violation of state law for improperly taking fringe benefit credits. The executives were not identified in a document filed by prosecutors.
The Department of Labor and Industry’s investigation covers potential violations dating back to Jan. 1, 2019. The company’s deal with prosecutors covered crimes that spanned 2015-18.
Messages left Thursday with the state’s Office of Attorney General and the attorney representing the company were not immediately returned.
Hawbaker sought to shut down the investigation because it argued the state’s top law enforcement office was acting on behalf of the Department of Labor and Industry when it offered the plea deal, but Rater disagreed.
The family-owned company, Deputy Attorney General Philip McCarthy wrote in a document filed last month, sought “the benefit of a bargain it simply did not make.”
“It is a blatant attempt by Hawbaker to avoid the consequences of its actions — consequences it was well aware were likely,” McCarthy wrote.
The company pleaded no contest to illegally diverting millions of dollars and other benefits from its workers to pad its profits, undercut competitors and pay for internal projects and company bonuses.
It agreed to pay more than $20 million to workers and submitted to oversight by a corporate monitor at its own expense, a rarely seen condition. The theft case was the largest of its kind in U.S. history.
Hawbaker changed the way it handled prevailing wage fringe benefit funds in 2019, McCarthy wrote. Despite the changes, prosecutors believe the company continued to improperly pay fringe benefits.
No criminal conduct was alleged for 2019 or later, McCarthy wrote, because the company “made efforts to correct its practices.”
Rater’s ruling marked the latest in a string of mounting legal woes for the company that’s facing two class-action lawsuits and a potential suspension from the state Transportation Department.
The business booked $1.7 billion in state transportation construction contracts between 2003 and 2018.
