BOSTON (Legal Newsline) — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced June 12 that her office handed out $80,000 in citations to three staffing agencies that supplied workers to a reusable bag factory in Lowell.
The penalties come as part of a labor scheme case that involved depriving minimum wage and overtime pay to hundreds of workers.
The three companies are Labor Express Inc., LNC Labor Services Inc. and Panha Corp. These companies supplied laborers to Unwrapped Inc., a reusable bag factory that agreed in March to pay $1.2 million in restitution to hundreds of workers and penalties after cheating them out of proper wages.
Labor Express was cited $25,000, LNC Labor Services was cited $20,000 and Panha was cited $37,500 for their roles in the scheme.
“These staffing agencies paid subminimum wages to hundreds of vulnerable factory workers,” Healey said. “Companies that orchestrate schemes that underpay workers and violate their rights will be held accountable by my office.”
Handling the case for the state were division chief Cynthia Mark and investigator Kevin Shanahan of Healey’s Fair Labor Division.