Home Health Care Company To Pay $22,000 For Failing To Pay Employees

Boston, MA (CompNewsNetwork) - Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office has cited a Tewksbury home health care company, Excel Home Care, Inc. (Excel) and its president, Diane E. Porter, age 63, also of Tewksbury, for violating the Commonwealth’s wage and hour laws by intentionally failing to pay employees in a timely manner and intentionally failing to provide proper pay stubs to employees with their wages.  The citation orders Porter and her company to pay over $7,800 in restitution to 10 employees and $14,000 in fines to the Commonwealth.

In July 2008, the Attorney General’s Office received multiple complaints from both current and former employees of Excel, alleging that they had not been paid for work performed as home health care and special needs providers.  Investigators from the Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division discovered that Excel owed 15 employees over $14,300 in wages for work performed from May 2007 through February 2009.    As a result of the investigation, Porter and Excel paid $6,540 in restitution directly to five employees; however, the company failed to pay the remaining employees their unpaid wages.  The Attorney General’s Office has fined Porter and Excel $10,000 for failure to make timely payment of wages to 10 employees, as well as a  $4,000 fine for failure to furnish pay stubs to four employees.  The citation also requires Porter and Excel to pay the remaining $7,816 in restitution to ten employees.

The Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division is responsible for enforcing the minimum wage and overtime laws, and the timely payment of wages laws in the Commonwealth.

The matter was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Miranda Jones with assistance from Inspector Daniel Cullinane and Victim Witness Advocate Nikki Antonucci, all of Attorney General Coakley’s Fair Labor Division.