GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The owner of a landscaping company in Jenison will have to pay former employees over $118,000 in damages after a federal investigation.
Jeremy Cizauskas will pay 32 former employees a total of $118,425 in back wages and damages after investigators found he denied paying employees overtime and misclassified them as independent contractors at his landscaping business.
Investigators say the employees were classified as independent contractors, which shouldn’t have happened because Cizauaskas had control over their schedules, provided equipment, training and uniforms. Because they were ruled employees, they were they were entitled to overtime pay.
Investigators found many of them frequently worked more than 50 hours per week at a set hourly rate and were often not paid for their time when they worked without a meal break.
