AG Campbell fines Brockton addiction treatment non-profit $1.15 million for using participants for free labor

By Alison Kuznitz

A Brockton nonprofit that runs treatment programs for substance use disorder is facing $1.15 million in fines, after Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office found that participants performed unpaid labor that was not related to their recovery.

Adult & Teen Challenge, Northeast, Inc., which runs treatment centers and residential programs around New England, argued the labor was not subject to the state’s minimum wage requirement because the activities fell under the exemption for “rehabilitation and training” programs, the AG’s office said Tuesday. But Campbell’s office contends program participants deserved to be paid for their labor, with their earned wages topping $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 the citations, the organization must now pay restitution to “hundreds of participants and penalties to the Commonwealth,” Campbell’s office said.

Participants in men’s programs in Brockton and Worcester were not compensated for work they did for “external for-profit” companies, including office cleaning, landscaping, moving, snow shoveling and food preparation, an investigation by the AG’s office found. Participants were also tasked with fundraising outside supermarkets, coffee shops and other businesses, plus telephone fundraising.

In a June letter, the Department of Labor Standards determined that the “rehabilitation and training” exemption did not apply for treatment center participants, and that their work “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,” the letter said. “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.”