Contractor agrees to pay underpaid workers

COVENTRY – Midland Fire Protection, based here, has reached agreement with the state of Massachusetts to pay more than $42,000 in back wages to 14 workers it underpaid for installing sprinkler systems at 12 schools in the state. According to Attorney General Thomas Reilly, the company failed to register the workers with the Division of Apprenticeship and Training and as a result the workers were underpaid by as much as $20 an hour. Among the schools in which the sprinklers were installed were Roosevelt Middle School in New Bedford and Barnstable High School, the Associated Press reported. Midland will pay the difference between what the company paid the workers and the prevailing wage that it was required to pay under state law.