BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced a settlement Friday with a Holliston landscaping company that allegedly failed to comply with the state's overtime laws.
Grasshopper Tree and Landscape Inc. will pay more than $169,000 in restitution to current and former employees and penalties to the state. Coakley's office is responsible for enforcing laws that regulate overtime, the payment of wages and the misclassification of employees in the state.
"Under Massachusetts law, workers deserve to be paid all of their wages including overtime," Coakley said.
Coakley's office received a complaint in April 2011 from a landscaper who worked at Grasshopper alleging that he was not receiving overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a given work week. Coakley's office alleged that overtime wages were due to some office workers and other landscapers as well.
Between June 2009 and September 2012, Grasshopper allegedly failed to pay overtime wages to 41 employees.
The state's Overtime Law requires that employees pay qualifying employees one and a half times their regular pay rate for hours worked over 40 in a work week.
Mass. AG announces $169,000 settlement with landscaper
