By Julie Manganis
Staff writer
August 07, 2008 05:02 am PEABODY — The owner of a Peabody painting and roofing company has admitted to a string of labor-law violations including failing to obtain workers' compensation insurance, improperly classifying some workers as independent contractors and failing to pay overtime. George Vasiliades, 44, of Ipswich, the owner of Olympic Painting and Roofing Co. Inc., entered a guilty plea on behalf of the company admitting to one count of failing to obtain workers' compensation insurance, and also admitted to other violations individually, including misclassifying employees as independent contractors, failing to pay overtime and failing to properly pay workers, according to the attorney general's office, which prosecuted the case. The company was fined $1,000 but was also barred from performing any work on publicly funded projects for three years. In addition, Vasiliades will pay $48,700 in restitution to 69 employees and $10,300 in penalties for the violations. The charges stem from an investigation that began in 2005 after the attorney general's office received a complaint. An audit of payroll records showed that he had failed to pay workers overtime in 2006, and that for most of 2005, he improperly deemed numerous employees as independent contractors. Businesses using independent contractors don't have to count them toward unemployment taxes or worker's compensation insurance premiums. Misclassification of workers as contractors is a common issue in the construction industry. Olympic was the general contractor on a project at the First Baptist Church in Salem when a worker for a subcontractor, BC Construction, was killed in a fall. The charges brought by the Attorney General are not related to that incident.
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