Investigation finds illegal workers at Pickens school project

By John C. Stevenson of Greenvilleonline.com

EASLEY — “Illegal, unauthorized workers” have been found on at least one of the sites in the School District of Pickens County’s $365 million Building Futures program, according to an incomplete state investigation.

Jim Knight, director of the office of communications for the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, told The Greenville News “we have determined that there are illegal, unauthorized workers working on some of the projects there in Pickens County.”

Knight did not say which construction site or contractor or subcontractor was involved; however, school board chairman Jim Shelton said he had learned the site involved is that of the new Pickens High School.

“We do know that there were some illegal aliens that were found on the Pickens High site,” Shelton said. “At this point, it is an allegation.”

Shelton said it was his understanding that the workers did not have proper identification with them at the job site.

“All I know is, they brought them in, they didn’t have it, and they were dismissed,” he said.

Shelton said the school district asked the LLR to investigate hiring practices at the construction sites, as did Sen. Larry Martin (R-Pickens).

According to Knight, the LLR began looking “at all of the general contractors and subcontractors working on the various projects” last week. “Once we’ve completed all of our audits, then we will turn over our findings to the school board and the superintendent.”

He said he expects the audits to be completed by the end of next week.

“We’re glad LLR came in, we’re glad they came in and did the investigation,” Shelton said. “We’re not happy that they found somebody, but we’re glad that the process is working and this investigation is going to continue throughout all the job sites in Pickens County.”

According to Lesia Kudelka, assistant director of the LLR’s office of communications, Knight is expected to give district building program director Bob Folkman an update on the investigation prior to Monday night’s school board meeting, at which Folkman is scheduled to give trustees his monthly report on the program.

Last Thursday Knight gave a report to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee in which he mentioned the preliminary findings in Pickens County. Martin, who serves on the Judiciary Committee and attended the subcommittee meeting, said he was “not at all” surprised by the findings.

“A lot of times, the Hispanic work crews can all be perfectly legal,” Martin said. “They can have all their documents and be here legally. The fact that there are a number of them here — we know illegally — it casts a suspicion upon a lot of the ones who are here working legally or maybe were born here and just appear to be of Hispanic origin.”

Of the four general contractors working on school-construction sites, Gilbane/SYS has already been found to be in compliance by the LLR. Representatives with Trehel Balfour Beatty, H.G. Reynolds, and Bowen & Watson have said their companies are compliant with employment regulations.

Martin said it’s likely the employer is a subcontractor. As state law stands now, only employers with more than 100 workers are required to comply with verification standards. On July 1, those standards will also be extended to include smaller businesses, which Martin said will bring subcontractors under state scrutiny as well.

With stricter enforcement just weeks away, “that was my purpose, just going ahead and putting everybody on notice, ‘look, we’re about complying with the law’,” Martin said.

Margaret Thompson said she has also been investigating employment practices on the district’s construction sites.

Thompson is a former Clemson City Council member who has become a spokeswoman for many area brick masons who say they are being passed over for jobs on the district’s construction sites in favor of immigrant labor.

“I don’t get this information by just pulling up to a school,” Thompson said. “It’s kind of like a police officer — they receive information, they build up information.”

Thompson, who has spoken about the issue at previous school board meetings, said she plans to attend Monday night’s school board meeting as well.

District superintendent Henry Hunt said he was unaware of Knight’s comments before the subcommittee, but that, “as a district, we’ll get with the contractor and expect them to follow up, and abide by and obey the law as they’re supposed to.”

Martin said he has been in contact with the school officials in the years since the district adopted its Building Futures program, and “there’s always been complete cooperation by the administration of the school district.”