District of Columbia AG Schwalb Wins $1.5M in Wage-Theft Case Against Brothers Mechanical

December 9, 2025

Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb today announced that Brothers Mechanical Inc., a construction company that has worked on large development projects in NoMa, Navy Yard, and other DC neighborhoods, will pay $1.5 million to resolve allegations that the company and its subcontractors misclassified hundreds of workers as independent contractors, depriving them of wages and benefits they were legally entitled to.

Under the terms of a settlement agreement resolving an investigation by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), Brothers Mechanical will pay $500,000 to impacted workers and $1 million to the District in penalties. The company will also be required to change its subcontracting practices and submit to compliance monitoring for three years.

Brothers Mechanical specializes in design, installation, and service of air conditioning, heating, ventilation, plumbing, and control systems. It has worked on construction projects in the District, including multiple mixed-use and residential projects in NoMa (Armature Works, a mixed use development at 1200 3rd St NE; the Gantry, a mixed use development at 300 Morse St NE; Cielo, an apartment building at 300 M St NE; and another mixed-use development that includes the Hale apartments at 1150 1st St NE), a large mixed-use development in Navy Yard (Urby at 1399 Yards Pl SE), and a mixed-use building in the Stacks development at Buzzard Point (100 V St SW).



OAG uncovered evidence that from 2020 through the present, Brothers Mechanical entered into agreements with subcontractors to provide about 500 construction workers to staff its projects, and that these workers were illegally misclassified as independent contractors. Because these workers were misclassified, they were not paid overtime premiums when they worked more than 40 hours in a week, were deprived of paid sick leave they earned, were required to pay more in taxes than they would if they were properly classified as employees, and were excluded from critical safety net programs for employees, including unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation.

Link to Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia Office statement here.
 
The settlement is available here.