Colonial Automotive To Pay $1M For Exploiting MA Unemployment: AG

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Colonial Automotive Group agreed to a spend $1 million to settle statements that it took benefit of point out unemployment benefits all through the COVID-19 pandemic, Legal professional Common Maura Healey introduced previous week.

Colonial has 16 car or truck dealerships in the course of the point out and all showrooms ended up purchased closed throughout the condition owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The corporation furloughed staff members, encouraged them to apply for unemployment added benefits and then asked for that people workforce carry on to do the job devoid of pay back.

“Colonial Automotive planned and carried out an illegal plan to cheat our unemployment process and prevent spending its employees in get to optimize its gains all through the COVID-19 disaster,” AG Healey claimed. “This is a brazen try at exploiting employees and the state’s unemployment program, and we will get motion versus those people who defraud our state organizations and try out to steal taxpayer dollars.”

The AG’s Place of work alleges that in the months pursuing the condition ordered closure of the dealership’s showrooms, the business marketed roughly 366 autos in April and close to 455 autos in Might that have been attributed to employees who were on furlough and gathering unemployment benefits at the time of the profits.

Colonial’s 16 car or truck dealerships consist of:

  • Colonial Cadillac of Woburn
  • Colonial Chevrolet of Acton
  • Colonial South Chevrolet Dartmouth
  • Colonial West Chevrolet Fitchburg
  • Colonial Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Hudson
  • Colonial South Jeep Dodge Ram Dartmouth
  • Colonial Ford of Plymouth
  • Colonial Ford of Marlborough
  • Colonial Honda of Dartmouth
  • North Stop Mazda of Lunenburg
  • Colonial Nissan of Medford
  • Cityside Subaru of Belmont
  • North Finish Subaru of Lunenburg
  • Colonial Volkswagen of Westborough
  • Colonial Volkswagen of Medford
  • Wellesley Volkswagen

The $1 million payment will go to the state’s basic fund. Colonial will have to enact procedures and procedures to ensure that furloughed workforce do not accomplish any functions similar to their position or Colonial’s company and, in any occasion in which furloughed staff members do complete these responsibilities, the company will compensate them in accordance with state work rules.

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