Peabody painting company to pay $60k in wage restitutions, penalties

PEABODY – A Peabody painting company agreed to pay $60,000 in restitution and penalties for multiple wage violations Wednesday.Olympic Painting and Roofing Co., Inc. pleaded guilty in Peabody District Court in connection with failing to obtain an insurance policy to properly protect its workers. Olympic agreed to pay a fine of $1,000 and is debarred from performing any public work for a period of three years.Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office also reached an agreement with the company’s owner, George Vasiliades, 44, of Ipswich, and Olympic to pay over $48,700 in restitution to the 69 affected employees and nearly $10,300 in penalties for numerous violations including misclassification of workers as independent contractors, failure to properly pay workers, and failure to pay overtime.The Attorney General’s Office first began their investigation in October 2005 after a complaint was filed with the office. An audit of Olympics’ payroll records showed that Vasiliades and his company had failed to pay employees a total of $48,500 in overtime for work performed throughout 2006.Investigators also discovered that from January 2005 through November 2005, Vasiliades misclassified numerous employees as independent contractors.In April 2006, the company also failed to pay one employee nearly $300 in wages. Additionally, further investigations proved that the company did not obtain a Workers Compensation insurance policy for all of 2005.The case was handled by Assistant Attorney General Bruce Trager, and was investigated by Inspector Greg Reutlinger, both of Attorney General Coakley’s Fair Labor Division. Investigator Jeff Ambrose from the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts also assisted with the investigation.