Asbestos & Demolition Manager Who Underpaid $80K In Wages Gets Probation, Restitution Sentence: DA

MINEOLA, NY. — A North Babylon man was sentenced to five years probation and over $80,000 in restitution payments Tuesday after prosecutors said he had underpaid more than 40 workers at his asbestos removal and demolition company over a two-year period.

Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly announced Tuesday that 67-year-old Joseph Demasco would serve probation time and have to pay out $81,592 in unpaid wages from public works projects at his construction company. Those wages, prosecutors said, were owed to employees who had worked on projects at public schools in Merrick and Oceanside between 2019 and 2021. Demasco pleaded guilty on Mar. 14 to a felony charge of failure to pay the prevailing wage, prosecutors said. As part of his sentencing, prosecutors said Demasco is also barred from working on public works projects in New York State for the next five years.

“Joseph Demasco treated our state’s prevailing wage laws as a suggestion, consistently underpaying workers on public projects and shorting more than 40 hard-working employees of $80,000 in their rightful wages,” Donnelly said Tuesday. “We will never tolerate contractors trying to save a buck on the backs of their employees. This gross exploitation of the people who build our communities will be prosecuted, and the individuals and businesses responsible will be held accountable with debarments, restitution payments to make their employees whole, and even jail time, when they flout our laws.”

Donnelly’s office said that Demasco’s company, BJA Renovations Corp., had worked on public works projects at the Birch School, the Roland Chatterton School and the Norman J. Levy Lakeside school between June and November of 2019, certifying payroll records with the Merrick Union Free School District. Those payroll records, prosecutors said, recorded a pay rate of $44 per-hour for hazardous construction laborers and $37.44 per-hour for construction laborers. Under New York state labor laws, prosecutors said, hazardous material laborers carried a minimum wage of $52.70 per-hour in wages and benefits at the time, while construction laborers carried a minimum wage of $68.96 per-hour in wages and benefits. The actual pay laborers received, prosecutors said, was just $35 per-hour, mostly in cash.

In addition to the work in the Merrick school district, prosecutors said the company performed work at Oceanside High School between June and September of 2021, again listing $44 per-hour as the rate for hazardous construction laborers and $37.44 per-hour for construction laborers, and again paying employees just $35 per-hour. During this timeframe, prosecutors said, state labor laws dictated the same minimum wage for hazardous material workers, while requiring a $74.70 per-hour wage and benefit package for construction workers.

“Honest work should result in honest pay. New York State has zero tolerance for anyone who tries to cheat their workers out of their hard-earned money or undermine accountability in public funding,” New York State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said Tuesday. “Thanks to the strong partnership between the New York State Department of Labor and the Nassau County District Attorney's Office, we will continue fighting worker exploitation in all its forms to ensure all New Yorkers receive every cent they have rightfully earned.”

On Feb. 21, 2020, prosecutors said BJA and its president, Nicholas Barnett, filed quarterly financial reports with the state outlining their withholding, wages and unemployment insurance returns. In those documents, prosecutors said the company recorded paying $52,904 in wages between Jul. 1, 2019 and Sept. 30, 2019. The payroll records from that time, however, reflected a payroll of over $185,000, prosecutors said, a difference of over $130,000. That underreporting, prosecutors said, defrauded the state unemployment fund out of over $63,000.

Barnett pleaded guilty to charges of failure to pay the prevailing wage and falsifying business records on Mar. 4, 2025 — 10 days before Demasco entered his plea — prosecutors said. Demasco was sentenced to three years of probation and a five-year debarment, prosecutors said.

Additionally, prosecutors said BJA vice president Dana Petrizzo pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct on Mar. 4, 2025, and was sentenced to a conditional discharge. BJA Renovations Corporation was also sentenced to a three-year conditional discharge on Aug. 21, 2025, and received a five-year ban from public works projects in New York State, prosecutors said.

Patch attempted to reach Demasco’s attorney, James Iannone, for comment Wednesday.