Friday, October 31, 2014

Nonprofit Exposed In Cheating Employees

by Gary Snyder

report exposed the employment practices of a Brooklyn nonprofit that failed to pay its mentally ill workers correctly for years.

It is alleged that it paid its janitors a third of the wages and benefits required by the state’s 'prevailing wage' law for janitorial jobs.  Shorefront Mental health board may have underpaid their employees by as much as $123,224 during 2013, a figure that is likely to rise after taking into account the lack of supplemental and other benefits to which workers were entitled

Shorefront was contracted until March 2014 to supply 26 janitors to work at several locations in Brooklyn and Staten Island as part of the part of the State Office of Mental Health’s (OMH) “Buy OMH” program, a statewide workplace initiative established to facilitate and improve the employability of New Yorkers with a psychiatric disability.

Shorefront management attempted to conceal their duplicity by falsifying the hours on the payrolls they were required to submit to the OMH. They continued to cheat employees out of the correct wage by paying them for fewer hours than they had actually completed, telling workers to submit blank time sheets that would supposedly be filled in accurately by management. The audit found that one worker who completed a total of 72 hours in January 2014 and should have been paid $2,201.04 received just $600.34. These inconsistencies were present throughout Shorefront’s payroll documents.

“This contractor unconscionably cheated disabled employees out of thousands of dollars.” New York state comptroller Tom DiNapoli said. “OMH needs to take immediate action to make sure contractors follow the law to protect all workers.”






Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Charity Navigator, Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio (NPR), Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), “Betrayal”, (a movie), NBC (on Charity Fraud…TBD), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Marie Claire, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, Charity Navigator, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, Board Room Insider, USA Today Topics, Accountants News, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times, Portfolio Magazine, The Virgin Islands Daily News, NANKAI (China) BUSINESS REVIEW, National Religious Broadcasters newsletter, The Charity Governance Blog, American Chronicle, Palm Beach Post, Detroit Free Press, Oakland Press, Nonprofit World, Socially Responsible Business Forum, PNNOnline, Ohio Nonprofit Resources, Nonprofit Good Practice Guide, Nonprofit Startup Guide, Nonprofit Blog, National Coalition of Homeless Newsletter, Finance and Administration Roundtable Newsletter, MichiganNonprofit.com, CORP! Magazine, Crain’s Michigan Nonprofit, ncrp.org, PhilanTopic, Nashville Free Press, Nonprofit Law Blog, Seniors World Chronicle, Carnegie Reporter, Assoc. of Certified Fraud Examiners Examiner, msnbc.com, Worchester (MA) Telegram and Gazette, Carnegie Corporation of America, EO Tax Journal, Wikipedia: Non-profit Organizations; Parent: Wise Austin, Accountants News, Veterans Today, Answers.com, Far-roundtable, #Nonprofit Report, nonprofithelpnews, nonprofit news; National Enquirer, Northwest Herald, The HelpWise Daily, The #Nonprofit Report, Wikipedia (Nonprofit Organization), Answers.com, Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)

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