The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office has cited a nursing rehabilitation company with multiple locations across the state for failing to pay hundreds of its employees on time for work completed during a two-week period last year, the office announced Tuesday.
The citation against Swansea-based Alpha Healthcare and its owner, William Segal, includes both penalties and wages, and totals nearly $1.1 million, the attorney general’s office said in a press release. Alpha Healthcare did not respond to a request for comment from MassLive Tuesday evening.
Massachusetts’ wage and hour laws require that employers compensate employees for their work within six days of the end of a pay period. State worker protections also demand that this compensation include full and complete payment for all work that was completed during that pay period.
The attorney general’s office began investigating Alpha Healthcare after receiving complaints from multiple employees reporting that the company had not paid their wages on time, the office said. It determined that Alpha Healthcare failed to pay its workers for work performed between Sept. 15, 2024, and Sept. 28, 2024, in a manner that complied with state wage and hour laws.
The attorney general’s office asserts that the company’s failure to make timely wage payments impacted all of its nearly 500 employees across each of its five private rehabilitation facilities, the office said. Alpha Healthcare operates locations in Fall River, Franklin, Newburyport, Swansea and Stoughton.
Restitution for the company’s unpaid wages was paid directly to the impacted employees when a receiver was appointed to oversee financial management of Alpha Healthcare, the attorney general’s office said.
“When employers violate our laws, including by failing to make timely wage payments, the economic security of workers and their families is unfairly put at risk,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said in the release. “My office will continue to enforce our laws to protect and empower workers, reminding employers that Massachusetts is serious about protecting workers’ rights.”
