what does the business and labor bureau of the ma attorney general's office investigate

by Joaquin Parker 8 min read

To this end, the Attorney General investigates charitable organizations and fundraisers and brings administrative and legal enforcement actions against them. See the Charities home pageand links on the right for more details about specific programs, laws, forms and the Registry Verification Search tool.

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What does the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office do?

Learn about the Attorney General’s Criminal Bureau. The Criminal Bureau protects the public by investigating and prosecuting a wide range of criminal cases. The Criminal Bureau prosecutes criminal cases that include matters of public corruption, financial fraud, and other violations of the public trust, organized crime, major narcotic ...

How do I file a complaint with the Massachusetts Attorney General?

The Fair Labor Division protects workers from exploitation and sets a level playing field for employers. The division enforces wage and hour, public construction, and child labor laws, and more.. File a workplace complaint online or call (617) 727-3465. The Insurance and Financial Services Division.

How do I contact the Massachusetts consumer advocacy&Response Division?

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office is an advocate and resource for the people of Massachusetts in many ways, including protecting consumers, combating fraud and corruption, investigating and prosecuting crime, and protecting the environment, workers, and civil rights.

What does the state attorney general do for fraud and deception?

Directory of contacts at the Attorney General’s Office. Call hotlines and other phone numbers at the Attorney General's Office or send an email to our staff. In most cases, the best way to contact the Attorney General’s Office is to file a complaint online. Find links to different complaint forms and more information on the office’s main ...

What is the role of the Massachusetts attorney general?

The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office is an advocate and resource for the people of Massachusetts in many ways, including protecting consumers, combating fraud and corruption, investigating and prosecuting crime, and protecting the environment, workers, and civil rights.

How do I file a complaint against an employer in Massachusetts?

File a complaint with the state Attorney General If your employer breaks the law, you can file a complaint about their wage or work violation with the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, 617-727-3465.

What is Maura Healey responsible for?

As a division chief and bureau head in the Attorney General's Office, Healey oversaw 250 lawyers and staff members and supervised the areas of consumer protection, fair labor, ratepayer advocacy, environmental protection, health care, insurance and financial services, civil rights, antitrust, Medicaid fraud, nonprofit ...

Who is the assistant attorney general of Massachusetts?

Eric HaskellEric Haskell - Assistant Attorney General - Massachusetts Attorney General's Office | LinkedIn.

What are the 3 basic employment rights for a worker?

The Occupational Health and Safety Act entitles all employees to three fundamental rights: The right to know about health and safety matters. The right to participate in decisions that could affect their health and safety. The right to refuse work that could affect their health and safety and that of others.

What is an example of unfair labor practice?

Examples include: Refusing to process a grievance because an employee is not a union member. Threatening an employee for filing a ULP charge. Refusing to negotiate in good faith with an agency.

How old is Maura Healey?

51 years (February 8, 1971)Maura Healey / Age

Where does Martha Coakley live?

Coakley resides in Medford, Massachusetts.

Who is the district attorney in Massachusetts?

Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. Rachael Splaine Rollins (born March 3, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician who is the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

Is Ma An attorney state?

Massachusetts is one of few so-called "attorney states" in the U.S. when it comes to real estate transactions.

Who is the new Attorney General of Massachusetts?

Maura HealeyAttorney General of MassachusettsMassachusetts Attorney GeneralCurrent OfficeholderAttorney General of Massachusetts Maura Healey Democratic Party Assumed office: 2015-01-21ElectionsNext election:November 8, 202214 more rows

Who is the new attorney general?

Merrick GarlandUnited States Attorney GeneralIncumbent Merrick Garland since March 11, 2021United States Department of JusticeStyleMr. Attorney General (informal) The Honorable (formal)Member ofCabinet National Security Council13 more rows

What is a card?

The Consumer Advocacy and Response Division (CARD) can help you resolve a dispute with businesses, refer you to a network of consumer assistance services, and answer your questions regarding complaints against businesses.

What is the Consumer Protection Division?

The Consumer Protection Division. The Consumer Protection Division enforces laws to protect consumers from fraud, deception, and other unfair practices.

What is fair labor?

The Fair Labor Division. The Fair Labor Division protects workers from exploitation and sets a level playing field for employers. The division enforces wage and hour, public construction, and child labor laws, and more..

What is the Insurance and Financial Services Division?

The Insurance and Financial Services Division investigates unfair or deceptive practices relating to investments and securities in order to protect consumers, municipalities, and the state in civil matters involving the insurance, securities, and lending industries.

What is the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office?

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office is an advocate and resource for the people of Massachusetts in many ways, including protecting consumers, combating fraud and corruption, investigating and prosecuting crime, and protecting the environment, workers, and civil rights.

Who is the Attorney General of Massachusetts?

Attorney General Maura Healey is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Attorney General's Criminal Bureau

If you you have information related to a criminal offense, please complete the request for review form. File a request for review with the Attorney General's Criminal Bureau

Attorney General's Health Care Division

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Please leave a voicemail at other times and we will return your call.

What are the issues with the Attorney General?

The Attorney General's Office can help with most consumer issues. The most common consumer issues include: 1 Defective products; 2 Car sales and financing; 3 Auto repossession issues; 4 Debt collection; 5 Mortgage servicing and loan modification; 6 Home improvement contracts; 7 Business closures; 8 Utility bill disputes; 9 Shut off of unregulated utilities; and 10 Issues specific to immigrants, veterans, homeless, and elderly residents.

How to contact Consumer Hotline?

If you just need information or would like to better understand a consumer issue, you should review the information on our website or call our Consumer Hotline at (617) 727-8400. If you are looking for complaint information about a particular business, you should review the Consumer Complaint Information online.

What is wage theft?

Wage theft occurs when employers fail to pay workers the full wages to which they are entitled for their labor. This includes, for example, refusing to pay workers the total amount of promised wages, not paying for time spent preparing a workstation at the start of a shift or closing up at the end of a shift, not paying overtime premiums to workers who work more than 40 hours a week, and keeping workers’ tips. Given that wage theft disproportionately affects workers from low-income households—who are already struggling to make ends meet—the loss of wages can have a particularly damaging impact.

How many states have attorneys general?

All 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as Puerto Rico and other territories, have attorneys general. Although 43 of these attorneys general are elected statewide on a partisan basis, the staffs of these offices are generally career and operate in a professional, nonpolitical manner. 2

When two or more businesses determine or have control over a worker’s pay, schedule, job duties, or other

When two or more businesses determine or have control over a worker’s pay, schedule, job duties, or other important terms and conditions of employment, the joint-employer doctrine allows them both to be held accountable as employers and responsible for violations of employment and labor laws (von Wilpert 2018):

Who is Terri Gerstein?

Terri Gerstein is an Open Society Foundations Leadership in Government Fellow and a Fellow at the Harvard Law School Labor and Worklife Program . Previously, she worked for over 17 years enforcing labor laws in New York State, including as a Deputy Commissioner of Labor and most recently as Labor Bureau Chief for Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Before her government service, Terri was a Skadden Fellow and Echoing Green Fellow at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (currently named Americans for Immigrant Justice), where she represented immigrant workers and co-hosted a Spanish-language radio show on workers’ rights. She also served as a law clerk for the Honorable Mary Johnson Lowe in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College.

What is prevailing wage?

Prevailing wage laws seek to ensure that government contractors pay wages that are comparable to the local norms for a given trade when those contractors are working on public construction and certain other contracts. Without prevailing wage requirements, contractors can win bids on government contracts by reducing their workers’ wages rather than competing on the basis of efficiency and management skills, materials costs, or the productivity of their workforce. Even after taking into account cost-of-living differences, median wages in construction are almost 7 percent lower in states where there is no prevailing wage law (Eisenbrey and Kroeger 2017).

How many convictions has the Attorney General of New York had?

New York’s attorney general has obtained over 40 convictions of employers for violating labor laws since 2011. One such case involved a Papa John’s franchisee who created false records and gave workers fictitious names in order to continue to illegally withhold overtime pay after becoming aware that he was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor for wage violations. 8

What is the role of the Attorney General?

A core function of state attorneys general is representing the state in court. Offices may defend labor agencies in their enforcement of state laws when employers challenge that enforcement in court, or they may defend agency decisions in unemployment or workers’ compensation cases. For example, in New York during the past decade, there have been numerous unemployment insurance cases where the New York Department of Labor determined that a worker had employee status, and was not an independent contractor as the employer claimed, and the attorney general’s office defended those determinations in appellate courts. 9 This representational function can also come into play in cases with national implications, such as in the Janus v. AFSCME case, in which the Illinois Attorney General’s Office represented the state as a party when defending public-sector unions’ ability to collect fair share fees (OAG Illinois 2018).

What is the OAG in New York?

New York State Executive Law Section 70-b mandated the establishment of an Office of Special Investigation (OSI) within the Office of the New York State Attorney General (OAG), effective April 1, 2021 . This legislation represents the codification and the expansion of the role previously performed by the Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit ...

What is the objective of OSI?

While OSI’s principal objective is to thoroughly investigate the incidents covered by Executive Law Section 70-b, in order to determine whether a prosecution is warranted , OSI also seeks to enhance transparency and strengthen public trust in the criminal justice system in these sensitive incidents.

What units comprise the Criminal Investigations Division?

The Criminal Investigations Division is staffed by commissioned peace officers and crime analysts who undertake a wide range of investigations and activities to support detection, prevention, and prosecution of crime.

What is the function of the Criminal Investigations Division?

The Criminal Investigation Division is a resource for local and county law enforcement and prosecution agencies who require investigative and/or prosecution assistance due to a lack of resources or a conflict of interest.

Aloha From the Department of the Attorney General

Our mission is to provide excellent legal and public services in a timely manner.

Latest News

08/02/2021: Hawaii Attorney General Connors Joins Fellow Attorneys General in Alerting Businesses and Government Entities to Take Prompt Action to Protect Operations and Personal Information

How to contact a company about a product?

Send the business necessary information. 1 Your name, physical and email address, and phone number. 2 The product or service, including the brand name, model and serial number. 3 The problem with the product or service, in as much detail as possible.

What to do if you have been victim of fraud?

If you have been the victim of fraud or deception, you should file a complaint with the attorney general . A complaint is a formal written document filed by a party seeking legal relief by outlining the allegations, details, remedies, and parties involved. The process for filing includes gathering paperwork, contacting various involved parties, ...

How to file a complaint against a state?

To file a complaint, visit your state's Attorney General's website, locate the online complaint form, fill it out and attach the necessary documents, and then mail it to the Attorney General's office address. Each state designates an agency to handle consumer complaints of fraud, deception, or unfair business practices.

How to find consumer protection?

Type the name of your state and “consumer protection” into a search engine. The attorney general’s website for your state should come up near the top of the search results. If you are taken to the attorney general’s main page, look for a link for “consumer protection.”. Click on it.

Summary

  • State attorneys general can be key allies in protecting workers’ rights. While there are variations in the structure, resources, and jurisdiction of state attorney general offices, these offices often have a range of powers that can enable them to play a key role in advancing and defending workplace protections by ensuring that employers comply with the law. This report describes some of the …
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General Background on State Attorneys General

  • All 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as Puerto Rico and other territories, have attorneys general. Although 43 of these attorneys general are elected statewide on a partisan basis, the staffs of these offices are generally career and operate in a professional, nonpolitical manner.2 Within the variety of office structures, most state attorney general offices have the foll…
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Roles of State Attorneys General in Protecting Workers’ Rights

  • Enforcement of laws to protect workers
    Using their authority to enforce state laws, state attorneys general have played an affirmative role in protecting workplace rights. Some state attorneys general are granted explicit civil or criminal enforcement jurisdiction. For example, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Fair Labor Divisio…
  • Representing state labor agencies in court
    A core function of state attorneys general is representing the state in court. Offices may defend labor agencies in their enforcement of state laws when employers challenge that enforcement in court, or they may defend agency decisions in unemployment or workers’ compensation cases. …
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Conclusion

  • State attorney general offices can be key allies in protecting workers’ rights. While there is variation in their structure, resources, and jurisdiction, state attorneys general have a range of powers that can enable them to play a leading role in ensuring legal compliance by employers and advancing and defending workplace protections.
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Acknowledgments

  • The authors would like to acknowledge Faisal Sheikh of the American Constitution Society for his work on An Overview of State Attorney General Labor Jurisdiction(Gerstein and Sheikh 2017), which helped inform this report.
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About The Authors

  • Terri Gersteinis an Open Society Foundations Leadership in Government Fellow and a Fellow at the Harvard Law School Labor and Worklife Program. Previously, she worked for over 17 years enforcing labor laws in New York State, including as a Deputy Commissioner of Labor and most recently as Labor Bureau Chief for Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Before her government …
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Endnotes

  • 1. Those states are: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. See Cooper and Kroeger 2017. 2. See the StateAG.orgwebsite. 3. FLA. CONST. art. X, § 24(e) (2004) (“The state attorney general or other official designated by the state legislature may also bring a civil action to enforce this amendment.”); OHIO CONST. art. II, Secti…
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References

  • Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Various years. Current Employment Statistics (CES) [public data series]. Data from the CES are available through the CES National Databases and through series reports. Carré, Françoise. 2015. (In)dependent Contractor Misclassification. Economic Policy Institute, June 2015. Colvin, Alexander J.S. 2017. The Growing Use of Mandatory Arbitration: Ac…
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