Firm Ordered to Pay Restitution to Workers

A Calabasas-based construction company was ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution to five former employees, whom prosecutors said the company failed to pay adequately for a publicly funded earthquake repair job.

Ande Contractors Inc. executives entered a plea of no contest Tuesday in Los Angeles Municipal Court to five counts of failing to pay prevailing wages to workers on a Northridge earthquake-recovery construction project.

The defendants also were placed on three years’ probation.

Andrew Railla, 39, president of Ande Contractors, also pleaded no contest to five counts of failing to pay adequate wages to workers, and will be sentenced on Aug. 5.

Los Angeles City Atty. Jim Hahn said Ande Contractors paid the workers between $7 and $12 an hour for a job that should have paid $22.89 an hour, since it was to be financed by public funds.

The five men were journeymen carpenters on a repair project at the Sophia Ridge Apartments in Northridge in late 1995.

The case stemmed from an investigation by the Carpenters/Contractors Cooperation Committee, which received a tip that those working for Ande Contractors, which was a subcontractor on the project, were not being paid the prevailing wage.

The workers will receive cashier’s checks ranging from $2,728 to $6,481, said Deputy City Atty. Deborah Sanchez, the prosecutor in the case. The company has until Aug. 5 to comply with the sentence.

The repair project was funded by a federal loan and grant administered by the Los Angeles Housing Department. The contract Ande Contractors signed included a clause that required the firm to pay the prevailing wage.