FCF first ran into Jamek Engineering in 2012. When FCF first investigated Jamek we discovered workers who had been paid less than 25% of the prevailing wage requirements on public projects and some workers who were denied payment altogether. In late 2015, thanks to the efforts of IUPAT District 82, FCF came across Jamek again, this time on a project in St. Paul, which had received federal and other public funding. Through the investigation FCF and District 82 discovered that Jamek had again apparently employed workers who had been paid less than 25% of the prevailing wage, kept some workers completely off the books, failed to pay some workers at all, submitted fraudulent documents, and had hired a 15 year old to perform construction work.

FCF and IUPAT District 82 submitted a complaint on this project to the City of St. Paul and the United States Department of Labor. The US DOL looked into this project in-depth, and also investigated other federally funded work that Jamek was performing. In June of 2017, the US Department of Labor submitted an Order of Reference to the Office of Administrative Law Judges regarding Jamek Engineering. This submittal is part of the Department’s efforts to debar Jamek Engineering from federal work. Along with the Order of Reference the Department submitted the summary of its findings, which allege that Jamek underpaid its employees by over $40,000 on two projects subject to Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements. Federal debarment may occur where the violations of the contractor’s obligations under the Davis-Bacon Act are aggravated or willful.

Debarment is a serious step for the Department to take, and this is the first investigation that FCF has worked on that has resulted in an effort to debar a contractor at the federal level. Federal debarment would render Jamek ineligible for any federal or federally funded work.   Further, under the Responsible Contractor Law, should Jamek Engineering be debarred by the federal government, it would be ineligible for any public work in the state of Minnesota. This is particularly relevant as Jamek appears to have once again started bidding on public work in Minnesota.