Press Release  AG Campbell Issues $1.15 Million In Citations Against Addiction Treatment Centers For Having Participants Perform Unpaid Labor Under The Guise Of “Rehabilitation”

Boston — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell today announced that her office has issued $1.15 million in citations against Adult & Teen Challenge, Northeast, Inc. (TCNE), a substance use disorder treatment program that required participants to perform unpaid labor for external clients of the organization, as well as unpaid in-person and telephone fundraising. The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) alleges that TCNE violated various state wage laws, including failure to pay minimum wage, failure to keep accurate records, and failure to permit employees to earn and use earned sick time. 

Under the citations, TCNE has been ordered to pay restitution to hundreds of participants and penalties to the Commonwealth.     

“People seeking treatment for substance use disorder deserve to be treated with dignity and fairness, not exploited for their labor,” said AG Campbell. “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.”  

TCNE is a 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in Brockton, with substance abuse treatment centers around New England, including residential programs for men in Brockton and Worcester. It is part of Adult and Teen Challenge USA, a national network of accredited and affiliated programs in over 20 states that claim to have 220 residential programs. 

An investigation by the AGO revealed that participants at the Brockton and Worcester men’s programs were required to perform labor for external for-profit companies that paid TCNE under a program called “Labor Source.”  That labor included office cleaning, landscaping, moving, snow-shoveling, and food preparation. In addition, these participants were required to do in-person fundraising outside supermarkets, coffee shops, and other businesses, as well as telephone fundraising. TCNE did not compensate participants for this work, claiming the activities fell within an exemption to the state minimum wage requirement for “rehabilitation and training” programs. The AGO concluded that this work performed by participants did not qualify for the exemption and that participants were entitled to be paid for their labor, which the AGO determined to be more than $850,000 in earned wages.  

The Department of Labor Standards (DLS), the state agency responsible for interpreting the Massachusetts minimum wage laws, issued a determination letter that confirmed the work performed by TCNE program participants for outside organizations and fundraising did not fall within the “rehabilitation and training” exemption. DLS determined that participants must be paid at least minimum wage for the relevant work they performed.  

DLS’s review stated, in part, “the work performed by the program participants appears to benefit TCNE and its clients more than the program participants themselves.... This is most clearly evidenced by the fact that the work programs are geared not towards the participants’ individual needs, but rather those of the clients or TCNE. 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 DLS determination marks the first-ever finding in Massachusetts that certain types of work required by a substance use disorder treatment program constitute employment, rather than rehabilitation or training, under the state’s minimum wage law.   

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Alex Sugerman-Brozan and Supervising Investigator Jennifer Pak of the AGO’s Fair Labor Division, which is tasked with enforcing the state’s wage and hour, child labor, and other employment laws. 

The AGO is committed to protecting the rights of all workers, including immigrant workers, who are disproportionately vulnerable to illegal employment practices, such as wage theft and other harms. The AGO encourages workers and employers to review the AGO’s Advisory on the Rights of Immigrant Workers. The Advisory affirms that all workers, regardless of their immigration status, are entitled to employment protections, including the right to a fair wage, protection from retaliation, classification as an employee, and freedom from sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace.  

In accordance with state and federal law, the AGO works to serve and protect all workers, without regard to immigration status, does not ask about workers’ immigration status, and does not voluntarily provide workers’ personal information to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  

Workers in Massachusetts who believe their workplace rights have been violated are encouraged to file a complaint with the AGO’s Fair Labor Division at mass.gov/ago/fld. For more information about the state’s employment laws, workers may call the AGO’s Fair Labor Hotline at (617) 727-3465 or visit mass.gov/ago/fairlabor for information available in multiple languages.   

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