I came across an interesting legal column in Electrical Contractor Magazine. Mr. Ittig posits several [real] legal problems from the construction field and this is the first one. I am throwing this out to see what the business experts on this forum think.
~Peter
Case #1 “Help”
A job is running late for a hundred reasons. The general contractor wants it finished and asks if you could use some help. You say “yes.†Two of the GC’s employees show up and work with you for a month. At final payment, the GC deducts $40,000 as a backcharge for the two men. You are surprised.
A. You owe the money. Your acceptance of the offer of help exposed you to the backcharge.
B. You don’t owe the money. The GC was voluntarily accelerating the work for his own benefit.
C. You owe the money. The assistance saved you the cost of the work done by the GC’s employees.
D. You don’t owe the money. Because the extra men were not your employees, you had no authority over what work they did, how fast or well they did it.
Replies
E: you owe some money ,But not 5000 a piece per week.
C'mon, Walter, us GCs need to make some money off our subs. Plus, our laborers are worth a thousand per day!!
You must have better laborers on the Left Coast.
Here it would only be $995
Hiring?It's not too late, it's never too late.
years ago i started a rip off on a roof a contractor was remodeling on, My main man hurt his back Both helpers quit leaving me with a roof open, The contractor gave me his crew to finish, Only thing was every man was at 45 bucks an hour while my helpers were 10, So i did not make a nickel, Worked for 2 weeks for free killing myself, I wanted to finish whatever i started and i did, funny thing was not makeing a nickel was not to bad but later on hearing how they were not happy and would never use me again hurt the most
Do these $1000 per day guys speak English?
Joe H
C.
Should have asked / negotiated the costs and done "cost - benefit" before agreeing.
Remodeling Contractor just on the other side of the Glass City
You certainly owe someone money.
Minimum wage seems too little.
Your normal wage seems proper.
$40K would get the GC shot.
The consensus seems to be that you owe money.
However, whether the true answer is A. or C. is up in the air due to the wafflely answers in posts 8 and 9. The score is:
A. 1/2B. 0C. 1 1/2D. 0E. 1
I guess the answer in this situation is to ask the GC, "OK. But how much is this gonna cost me?" It might be cheaper to run to Labor Ready or Contractor's Labor Pool.
~Peter
After you get sued, the judge makes you pay the GC Prevailing wages for the guys.
SamT
Im wondering if they would be working for you, Who has control and takes there taxes out every week??// What if OSHA came on the job??? What if they were hurt??