A Lawrence asbestos company and its president have been cited more than $300,000 for intentionally failing to pay the proper prevailing wage or overtime rate to its employees for work on public projects.

The attorney general’s office issued three citations, all with specific intent, against MJ Environmental Inc. and president Jose I. Pena for failure to pay prevailing wage (subsequent violation), failure to pay overtime and failure to submit true and accurate weekly certified payroll records to the awarding authorities (subsequent violation). Pena has been cited in the past by the AG’s office for similar violations.

In 2008, the AG’s fair labor division entered into a civil settlement with ESC and Pena, which included citations for intentional failure to pay prevailing wage and related records violations. ESC agreed to pay more than $12,000 in restitution and penalties.

The AG’s office began a subsequent investigation into Pena and MJ Environmental after a proactive compliance check revealed alleged violations. The investigation determined that between June 2012 and January 2014, MJ Environmental failed to pay the proper prevailing wage rate to 62 workers. According to the certified payroll records and project records produced by Pena, the workers were classified as hazardous waste/asbestos removers, but they were not actually paid at the proper rate for that classification.

In total, Pena and MJ Environmental failed to pay the required prevailing wage rate on 19 public construction projects, the total value of which exceeds $1.9 million.

The investigation further revealed that Pena and MJ Environmental also intentionally failed to pay overtime to 27 employees on five separate occasions for work performed on two projects – the city of Springfield’s Margaret C. Ells School project and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ Bowman Hall project. Pena purposely attempted to conceal his employees’ overtime hours worked from authorities, according to the AG’s office.

As a result of the investigation, the AG determined that 65 employees were impacted by these prevailing wage and overtime violations. Pena and the company were cited $318,715 in total restitution and penalties.