Clerical workers were paid $47.50 per hour, while a dentist received $123,000 a year for working two afternoons a week reviewing claims. One employee earned an annual salary of more than $100,000 simply for retrieving voice-mail messages twice a week.

Those are some of the misuses of funds alleged in a lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Newark, against several employees of Local 734 of the Laborers' International Union of North America in Rochelle Park.

The lawsuit asserts that the employees swindled its members by providing "non-essential" jobs and overpaid positions to relatives and close associates. The lawsuit charges that the pension and welfare funds were defrauded in excess of $1 million.

"These grossly excessive salaries caused the Pension fund to pay approximately 40 percent of its total contributions towards administrative costs with the Welfare Funds paying approximately 20 percent in that connection - far exceeding permissible administrative costs under the ERISA [Employment Retirement Income Security Act]," the lawsuit states.

Furthermore, the lawsuit says, a number of no-bid contracts with "excessive payments" were awarded and certain employees named in the lawsuit have ties to the Genovese crime family.

The laborers' union, which has national headquarters in Washington, D.C., is asking for a federal investigation into the New Jersey local, which has offices on Essex Street.

Lawyers for the trustees have also asked the courts for a preliminary injunction restraining the defendants from interfering with the operation of the funds. They are also seeking compensatory and consequential damages.

"Plaintiffs have suffered damages and will continue to suffer damages as a result of the defendant's actions,'' the lawsuit reads.

The laborers' union represents more than 800,000 men and women throughout the United States and Canada. Members mostly work in construction, but the union also represents health care, food service and custodial workers.

The lawsuit was filed by Patrick Byrne and Paul Drazen, trustees for the local's pension and welfare funds, in response to a Dec. 30 order by Peter Vaira, an independent hearing officer for the union.

After conducting an investigation, Vaira, former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, found that "massive fraud" had been perpetrated on the funds, according to the lawsuit.

Vaira also found that since at least 1996, August "Auggie" Vergalito, a former executive board member and assistant business manager, and a group of individuals related or closely associated with him, devised a scheme to defraud Local 734.

Vergalito, who Vaira claims is an associate of the Genovese family, pleaded guilty in 1997 to unlawfully concealing payments he made from the local's educational and welfare fund, according to the lawsuit. At the time, he received a $500 fine and probation, documents show.

Among those named in the lawsuit are Vergalito's wife, Rhoda; his daughter, Jamie Dolan; and hissons-in-law, John Fritzsch and Edward Dolan. All who have worked for the local at some capacity. Peter Rizzo, the funds administrator, and Isaac Barocus, an associate of Vergalito, are also named.

Rizzo and fund trustees named in the lawsuit did not return calls seeking comment.

David Grossman, special counsel to the fund who is representing Rizzo, denied that his client had any connections to organized crime and said Rizzo had nothing to do with the hirings. He also said the employees cited in the lawsuit were hired for legitimate jobs.

"They may have been paid a little more than normal, but that's up to the courts to decide,'' Grossman said. "They were not no-show jobs, they were important to the fund."

Grossman added that the funds, under the current leadership, have been making money. He said the pension fund is over $75 million, while the welfare fund has more than $10 million.

"Where most funds have problems, these have been fully funded,'' he said.

Angelo R. Bisceglie Jr., a lawyer for some of the other defendants, did not return calls seeking comment.

Vincent Giblin, lawyer for the trustees who filed the lawsuit, said officials should have scrutinized jobs more thoroughly.

"The men and women of Local 734 deserve better than officials that permit ruse jobs to family members,'' he said. "Rizzo, who served as a medical screener, and as a former pension investigator, should have known that his job was not essential."

A hearing for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Feb. 10.