Bay State Linen, 9 Ansel Rd., has agreed to pay up to $900,000 in back wages and overtime to 177 workers hired by a Roslindale temp agency whose owners were indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury on Thursday, the Massachusetts Attorney General's office reports.

The Attorney General's office says the workers, some of whom regularly worked 100 hours a week, were paid below minimum wage under the table and were never paid extra for overtime work.

Robert Carrion and Fabiola Ramirez, both 46 and both from Roslindale, face criminal charges for their role in supplying workers to Bay State.
Carrion and Ramirez ran a temp company called Country Temp Corp. out of their home at 20 Stella Rd. in Roslindale and supplied most of the workers at Bay State Linen, 9 Ansel Rd. in Dorchester.

According to the AG's office: "The AG’s investigation revealed that the defendants were allegedly paying employees below minimum wage in an under-the-table payroll operation. The employees allegedly did not receive overtime pay despite regularly working upwards of 60 to 70 hours per week, with some regularly working 100 hours in a week. The employees were paid strictly in cash without paystubs listing their hourly rates of pay.

"After the AG’s Office began their investigation, Carrion and Ramirez allegedly attempted to intimidate, threaten, and mislead their employees. The defendants allegedly threatened cooperating witnesses and other potential witnesses with termination and other unspecified harm. Specifically, Carrion allegedly held a 30-minute meeting with some employees in which he directed them not to cooperate with investigators.

"Further, Carrion and Ramirez allegedly reduced the amount of hours certain cooperating workers were allowed to work after Ramirez witnessed those workers speaking with investigators from the AG’s Office during a site inspection.

"The AG’s Office alleges that in the criminal case, nine employees are owed nearly $55,000 in minimum wages and overtime."

Carrion was indicted on six counts of witness intimidation, four counts of retaliation, nine counts of failure to pay minimum wage, nine counts of failure to pay overtime, four counts of failure to make timely payment of wages, two counts of failure to furnish payroll records to the state for inspection, nine counts of failure to provide suitable paystubs and nine counts of failure to issue a temporary worker right to know notice.

Ramirez faces the same charges, except she was only charged with three counts of witness intimidation instead of six.