SRC Painting, LLC, 346 NLRB 707 (2006); 30-CA-16577 & 30-CA16813

Jun 30, 2011

OUTCOME: Judgment in favor of charging party

On June 30, 2011, the Board issued its second decision in SRC Painting, LLC, ordering SRC and its owners to make whole the discriminatee and union funds by paying them $364,593.46 in backpay and benefi ... ts. The order follows the original decision from 2006. Attorney Christopher Ahrens of Previant Goldberg represented the charging party, Painters District Council 7, in the case. The total judgment has now been apportioned out among the discriminatee and the Union’s welfare, vacation, pension, training, and dues funds. In the original decision in 2006, the Board found that the three corporate respondents, SRC Painting, LLC, PBN, LLC and Liquid Systems were alter egos of each other and violated § 8(a)(1), (3) and (5) of the Act. Each of these three corporations were started and run in succession to one another out of private residences of the Wierzbicki family, consisting of father James Wierzbicki, his wife Karen, their son Eric and his wife Constance, son Edmund, and daughter Erin. The Board also found individual liability against James, Eric, Edmund, and Erin for the unfair labor practices of the alter egos by reason of their proprietary roles in the corporations. Following this Decision, James, Erin, and Edmund Wierzbicki each filed for personal Chapter 7 bankruptcy and were granted a discharge of their individual liabilities, thereby leaving only Eric Wierzbicki subject to the Board's second supplemental Decision and Order. In addition to the Board proceedings, James, Eric, Edmund, and Erin were each indicted and later convicted for income tax fraud following an Internal Revenue Service investigation. In a June 1, 2011, decision by Chief U.S. District Judge Charles N. Clevert, James Wierzbicki was sentenced to 32 months in prison and three years of supervised release, while his sons Eric and Edmund was given some jail time and five years probation. All three were ordered to pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $418,522.