Massachusetts cites Dunkin operator and staffing firms over worker pay

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced $1.46 million in citations on September 3 against a Dunkin franchise operator, two staffing agencies and their managers over wage and employment violations.

The citations name Northern Management Group LLC (NMG) and managers Jigar Patel, Nikul Patel and Nilesh Patel. They also name D and J Services Group LLC, Prime Management Services Corp. and the agencies’ manager, Daylon Oliveira. The assessment includes restitution for 100 workers and state penalties. The announcement does not establish that those sums have been paid. The attorney general’s findings

NMG operates more than 20 Dunkin franchises in eastern Massachusetts. According to the office, it began using the agencies in 2023 for core restaurant jobs, including managers, coffee makers and bakers. Investigators found workers were wrongly labeled independent contractors despite NMG’s direction and control, and treated the businesses as joint employers.

The office also found late wage payments between August 2023 and August 2025, unpaid travel between locations and failure to produce required assignment notices. The case concerns the named franchise and staffing businesses; Dunkin’s corporate parent is not a cited party in the announcement.

The classification test covers the contract and the work#

For state wage-and-hour purposes, Massachusetts’ three-part classification test starts with employee status and requires all three conditions for the exception. Its relevant wording was enacted in 2004.

The worker must be free from control and direction, perform services outside the employer’s usual business, and customarily operate an independent trade or business of the same nature. The control condition applies both to the contract and to how the service is performed. The 2004 act, section 26

The statute also specifies what cannot decide the classification. Failure to withhold income taxes or pay unemployment contributions or workers compensation premiums is excluded from that determination. A worker’s election to obtain workers compensation insurance as a sole proprietor or partnership is also excluded.

Those provisions prevent the classification inquiry from ending at a payroll label or insurance arrangement. The test still requires examination of control, the usual course of business and an independently established occupation. Its three conditions explain why the working relationship described by investigators matters to the case.

A placement notice has specific delivery requirements#

Massachusetts’ Temporary Workers Right to Know law requires staffing agencies to give covered workers assignment information. The 2012 act specifies the agency and worksite employer, position, pay rate, payday and expected daily hours. It also covers special equipment or training, meals and transportation charges. The Temporary Workers Right to Know act

An agency can direct a worker to an assignment by telephone, provided it discloses the required information. Written confirmation must be sent in the worker’s chosen method before the first pay period ends. Changes to the initial employment terms must be provided immediately and acknowledged by the employee.

The act also requires staffing agencies to post workers’ rights and the labor department’s telephone number at their business locations. These are separate requirements from a contract between the agency and restaurant: they specify information that must reach the person taking the assignment.