Press Release  Herb Chambers Resolves Claims of Employee Wage Violations

Boston — The auto dealer Herb Chambers Companies will pay $116,758 in restitution and penalties for violating Massachusetts wage laws by taking improper deductions from employees’ paychecks to launder staff uniforms, Attorney General Maura Healey announced today. 

“Herb Chambers has agreed to change its practices and will pay back its employees,” said AG Healey. “We are pleased with this resolution.”

The AG’s Office opened an investigation after receiving a complaint from a Herb Chambers Porsche worker in Boston who alleged the dealership took $5 from every week of his pay to launder his uniform. After contacting the dealership, the AG’s Office learned that it had distributed a written “Uniform Deduction Authorization” to every employee upon their hire that failed to indicate the deductions for laundry services were voluntary. The AG’s Office concluded that the company had been making improper deductions from service employees’ wages from 2014 to 2017, resulting in an underpayment of wages.

As a result of the investigation, Herb Chambers agreed to pay restitution to 358 current and former employees and implemented new authorizations that include language indicating the deductions for laundry services are voluntary.

Workers who believe that their rights have been violated in their workplace are encouraged to file a complaint at www.mass.gov/ago/wagetheft. For information about the state’s wage and hour laws, workers may call the Office’s Fair Labor Hotline at (617) 727-3465 or go to the Attorney General’s new Workplace Rights website www.mass.gov/ago/fairlabor for materials in multiple languages.

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Anita Maietta and investigator Eduina Butts of the AG’s Fair Labor Division. 

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