April 22, 2019
Lindsay VanHulle
Attorney General Dana Nessel on Monday said she will step up investigations of Michigan companies that don’t pay full wages and benefits to their employees.
The announcement is in keeping with her campaign promise to protect workers and labor unions. The event featured a number of union workers and Democratic lawmakers, but no Republicans, the majority party in the state House and Senate.
Nessel, a Democrat, is creating a payroll fraud enforcement unit within the Attorney General’s office to investigate such claims as wage theft, lack of overtime pay and misclassifying workers as independent contractors rather than employees.
The unit will be led by Zachary Risk, an assistant state attorney general, and housed within the office’s labor division. It will coordinate with other state departments and agencies – for example, the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs’ Wage and Hour Division, or the Unemployment Insurance Agency – to investigate complaints against companies.
“These are companies that fraudulently report employees as self-employed and independent contractors, or they’re paying workers under the table,” Nessel said during a news conference in Lansing to unveil the payroll fraud unit.
“They refuse to pay overtime, benefits, health insurance and workers’ compensation. And because they cheat on time cards to keep costs off the books, they’re not paying their taxes,” Nessel said. “The majority of Michigan companies play by the rules, but those who don’t are cheating the system, raking in unfair profits and hurting Michigan in the process.”