CARSON CITY -- The Supreme Court said Thursday the state labor commissioner acted within his authority in finding that a company building a Clark County fire station did not pay prevailing wages to some of its workers.

Some of the workers involved in the case were illegal immigrants, a fact cited by the company, City Plan Development Inc., to unsuccessfully claim they were not entitled under Nevada law to collect the prevailing wage for their work.

While ruling for the labor commissioner and five of the eight workers, the court panel of three justices did agree with the company that the commissioner assessed an inappropriately excessive penalty in the case.

The Clark County Commission awarded City Plan a contract to build Fire Station No. 26, which was completed in September 1999.

Afterward, 20 people filed wage claims against the company.

Former Deputy Labor Commissioner David Hill heard the matter and ruled in favor of the employees.

City Plan then sought a court review. The court set aside the decision and returned the matter to the labor commissioner for a new hearing on behalf of eight workers.

At the second hearing, Labor Commissioner Terry Johnson found in favor of five of the eight employees.

Several of the men had testified at the hearing that they were required to sign blank time sheets, which later were filled out by a supervisor. They said company supervisors made them endorse checks for an amount based on their time sheets, but that they were paid in cash an amount lower than the checks.

The commissioner found that City Plan owed the five workers a total of $11,946.31 and assessed a penalty totaling the same amount. City Plan was also disqualified from being awarded a public works contract for two years.

City Plan appealed again to district court. The court denied the company's petition so it appealed to the Supreme Court, challenging the commissioner's authority to proceed with wage claims and the administrative decision itself.

The court said in its unanimous decision there was no evidence of bias in the labor commissioner's decision.

City Plan also claimed that because the workers were "undocumented aliens," Nevada law precluded the company from having to pay prevailing wage.

But the court said the law cited by the company did not apply.

The court noted that the Legislature in 2003 mandated that the prevailing wage laws be enforced, "without regard to whether an employee or workman is lawfully or unlawfully employed."

The court did agree that the penalty assessed by the commissioner was an "impermissible double penalty."

Such fines must be consistent with the costs of investigation and prosecution, the court said. Prevailing wages are set by the state.

The labor commissioner surveys contractors each year, and the most common wage they report in each county for each trade becomes, in most cases, the prevailing wage.