Four Massachusetts temporary staffing agencies and a Boston-area hotel operator will pay $875,234 combined to settle state investigations into unpaid wages, missing sick time, and worker misclassification affecting roughly 421 workers. The companies named in the settlements include Preferred Staffing, The Staffing Group, SCSS, Star Hospitality, and Gulph Creek Hotels, which operates the Four Points by Sheraton Boston Newton hotel.
Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced the settlements, saying every worker in Massachusetts is entitled to be paid the wages they rightfully earn, and that her office will hold employers accountable when they violate labor laws. The case was handled by the Massachusetts Attorney General's Fair Labor Division, which enforces the state's wage and hour, child labor, and other employment laws, as first reported by MassLive. The settlements include back pay and penalties, with most of the funds going directly to employees.
Staffing Agencies Accused of Illegal Deductions and Missed Sick Time
Brockton-based Preferred Staffing and Andover-based The Staffing Group agreed to pay $575,578 after investigators found the companies deducted unauthorized transportation fees from paychecks, causing worker pay to fall below the state minimum wage. The two agencies also reduced overtime pay and failed to offer paid sick leave, according to the same account.
Massachusetts law specifically bars staffing agencies from taking transportation deductions that push pay below minimum wage or that exceed 3% of daily wages, under the Temporary Workers Right to Know Law, Chapter 149, Section 159C. Pennsylvania-based SCSS was fined $108,000 after investigators found the company issued late paychecks, violated minimum wage requirements, and failed to provide payroll records. Under a 2022 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in Reuter v. City of Methuen, employers face strict liability and mandatory treble damages for late or unpaid wages regardless of whether back pay is issued before a lawsuit, as detailed by WilmerHale.
Peabody Company Accused of Misclassifying Workers
Peabody-based Star Hospitality was fined $40,200 after the state's investigation found the company misclassified about 134 employees as independent contractors rather than full staff, denying them earned overtime and sick pay. Massachusetts enforces one of the nation's strictest worker classification standards under Chapter 149, Section 148B, which presumes all workers are employees unless the hiring entity proves the worker is free from control, performs work outside the employer's usual course of business, and operates an independent trade, according to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Gulph Creek Hotels, which operates the Four Points by Sheraton Boston Newton, agreed to pay $155,456 after investigators found the company paid front desk and maintenance workers less than Massachusetts' $15 hourly minimum wage. State law separately requires employers to provide eligible employees with up to 40 hours of job-protected paid sick time per calendar year, compensated at their regular hourly wage, a standard cited in several of the citations announced alongside this case.
Individual Executives Named Alongside Companies
The Attorney General's Office confirmed that individual corporate officers were cited alongside their companies in the announcement, including Martin Rubeo of Preferred Staffing, Thomas Pennace of The Staffing Group, David Hazboun of All Star Hospitality, Harpal Singh of SCSS, and Amy Gancasz of Gulph Creek Hotels. The Attorney General's Office said it is committed to protecting all workers, including immigrant workers, who are disproportionately vulnerable to illegal employment practices.
Campbell's office encouraged Massachusetts workers who believe their workplace rights were violated to file a complaint with the Fair Labor Division, which provides employment-law information in multiple languages. Workers can reach the Massachusetts Fair Labor hotline at (617) 727-3465.
Part of a Broader Crackdown on Low-Wage Sectors
The case fits a pattern of aggressive state enforcement against temporary staffing agencies and service-sector employers. During Fiscal Year 2025, the Fair Labor Division took 1,542 civil enforcement actions against 1,405 employers, assessing over $196.6 million in restitution and penalties for more than 137,890 workers, according to the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office. That followed Fiscal Year 2024, when the division targeted 638 employers and secured over $31.5 million in restitution and penalties for 40,370 workers, with failure to make timely wage payments listed as the most common violation.
Similar cases have surfaced repeatedly in recent years. In March, a Wilbraham-based healthcare staffing agency and its president paid $214,842 in citations for failing to make timely payroll payments. In 2023, Hoodline reported that Boston temp agency Quick Temp faced $1.39M in fines for wage, sick time, and record-keeping violations affecting day laborers, and in 2025 Danvers-based SJ Services agreed to pay nearly $1 million after failing to pay minimum wage, timely wages, and overtime to roughly 450 service workers.
