A Brockton nonprofit that operates substance use disorder treatment and residential programs across New England is facing $1.15 million in fines after state officials found that participants were required to perform unpaid work unrelated to their recovery.
Adult & Teen Challenge, Northeast, Inc. operates treatment centers and residential programs throughout the region. The organization argued that the work was exempt from Massachusetts’ minimum wage law because it was part of “rehabilitation and training” programs, according to Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office.
But Campbell’s office determined that participants should have been paid, with the wages owed estimated at more than $850,000.
“People seeking treatment for substance use disorder deserve to be treated with dignity and fairness, not exploited for their labor,” Campbell said. “This first-of-its-kind enforcement action makes clear that when treatment centers require individuals to do work that is unrelated to rehabilitation or training, they must follow our state’s labor laws and pay people for the work they perform.”
Under citations issued by the attorney general’s office, the organization must pay restitution to hundreds of former and current participants, as well as penalties to the Commonwealth.
The investigation found that participants in men’s programs in Brockton and Worcester performed unpaid work for “external for-profit” companies. Their assignments included office cleaning, landscaping, moving, snow shoveling and food preparation.
Participants were also required to conduct fundraising outside supermarkets, coffee shops and other businesses, as well as solicit donations by telephone.
In a June letter, the Massachusetts Department of Labor Standards determined that the “rehabilitation and training” exemption did not apply to the treatment center’s participants. The department concluded that the work “appears to benefit TCNE and its clients more than the program participants themselves.”
The letter pointed to the nature of the assignments as evidence.
“If one of TCNE’s clients needs landscaping work or snow shoveling done, the program participants do landscaping or snow shoveling, regardless of whether that task has any rehabilitative benefits for the participant,” the department wrote.
The ruling establishes that treatment programs cannot rely on the rehabilitation-and-training exemption when participants are performing work primarily benefiting the organization or its clients rather than furthering the participants’ recovery or vocational training.
