Environmental monitoring correspondence regarding remediation contractor, March 2003

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

gn THACHER ■W ASSOCIATES 1. Mold Remediation

Labor

Review of invoices revealed numerous issues pertaining to payroll. Due to the number of personnel employed on the project, the amount of corrections made to the payroll and lack of a credible, clear trail supporting said changes, only a sample time frame (from June 2, 2002, through June 30, 2002) was examined. TA’s review of the sample time frame revealed that the invoices lacked adequate support documentation. Retroactive payroll adjustments contain errors and lack a straight forward financial trail necessary to determine appropriate billing. The payroll issue becomes even more complicated considering that the backup documentation does not resolve the anomalies. Through TA’s review process of invoices submitted for analysis as well as Safeway’s response to TA’s inquiries, TA was able to determine that the invoices lacked adequate support documentation. Furthermore, Safeway’s response to TA’s inquiries indicates that retroactive payroll adjustments contain errors and lack a straight forward financial trail necessary to determine appropriate billing. Other issues pertaining to payroll include lack of union benefits for some of the employees and billing for clerical services. TA is of the opinion that an in depth study of payroll is warranted in order to reach sound conclusions. Some of our findings relative to payroll include the following:

a. Safeway double billed two (2) of its employees who performed work on both the asbestos abatement/demolition project and mold remediation project from June 17, 2002, to June 28, 2002. This issue resulted in an over billing of $612.03 (Exhibit 2).

b. Safeway has made errors with regard to overtime rates charged to the project. According to the Trade Agreement for Local Unions 78, 66 and 12A, “ Overtime shall be defined as all hours worked in excess of eight hours per day or forty (40) hours per week.” Employee daily and/or weekly time invoiced to the project is billed at time and one half where insufficient straight time is logged to justify the overtime pay (Exhibit 27). The total overcharge can not be determined without a thorough analysis of the entire payroll history. This issue also raises a concern of Safeway charging time from other projects to the Ground Zero project.

c. In accordance with the Local 12A and Local 78 Union Trade Agreement, lunch breaks are non-billable. “Employees shall receive a one-half (1/2) hour unpaid meal period, ... Employees working a shift of more than 12 hours shall receive an additional one-half (1/2) hour unpaid meal period.” TA has identified that employees took between one half of an hour to one hour lunch breaks (Exhibit 4). The total overcharge can not be determined without a thorough analysis of the entire payroll history and back-up documentation. However, TA estimated that the over billing, based on one-half hour

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