NEWARK – Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Division of Consumer Affairs today announced settlements with 22 employment/personnel service firms operating as unregistered businesses in the state.

The firms – whose services run the gamut from executive-level employment placements to hourly labor assignments – agreed to the settlements to resolve the Division’s investigation into whether their failure to register with the Division’s Regulated Business Section, as required by law, violated New Jersey’s consumer protection laws and regulations.

Under the settlement terms contained in 22 Consent Orders filed by the Division, the firms were assessed a total of $62,000 in civil penalties ranging from $2,000 to $8,000 each.

“Firms doing business in New Jersey must comply with the laws in place to protect the public and ensure compliance with industry standards, and that begins with being properly registered,” said Attorney General Platkin. “The fines announced today send a clear message that skirting the registration process and unlawfully operating outside of the Division’s regulation and oversight will not be tolerated.”

“Ensuring that employment and staffing services firms are properly registered is essential to the Division’s efforts to enforce the laws that provide critical protections to workers,” said Cari Fais, Acting Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs. “We will continue to investigate and take action against unregistered firms to bring them into compliance.”

Of the 22 firms, two were operating as Temporary Help Service Firms, which provide temporary personnel on their payroll to employer clients for temporary work assignments. The remaining 20 were operating as Consulting/Temporary Help Service Firms, which act as Temporary Help Service Firms and also as Consulting Firms/Headhunters, which procure interviews for job seekers with prospective employers and for prospective employers with job seekers. The following firms entered into Consent Orders with the Division to resolve alleged violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, the Private Employment Agency Act, the Regulations Governing Personnel Services, the Regulations Governing Consulting Firms, and/or the Regulations Governing Temporary Help Service Firms:

* Click firm name to view Consent Order

In addition to accepting the civil penalties, the firms also agreed to stop engaging in any unfair or deceptive acts or practices, comply with all applicable state and federal laws, register their businesses within 30 days of the settlement, and maintain annual registration, as required by law.

Supervising Investigator Murat Botas and Investigator Roger Hines, of the Division of Consumer Affairs’ Office of Consumer Protection, conducted these investigations. Deputy Attorneys General Jeffrey Koziar, Cathleen O’Donnell, Renee Cadmus, Zeyad A. Assaf, Monisha A. Kumar, Ana Atta-Alla, Donna J. Dorgan, James Greenberg, Erica Salerno, Bryan S. Sanchez, Amber M. Dailey, Deepta Janardhan, Christopher Meyer, Monica E. Finke, Yale E. Leber, Sara J. Koste, Leslie Prentice, and Andrew F. Esoldi, under the supervision of Consumer Fraud Prosecution Assistant Section Chiefs Jesse Sierant and Chanel Van Dyke within the Division of Law’s Affirmative Civil Enforcement Practice Group, represented the State in the settlements.

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The mission of the Division of Consumer Affairs, within the Department of Law and Public Safety, is to protect the public from fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, and professional misconduct in the sale of goods and services in New Jersey through education, advocacy, regulation and enforcement. The Division pursues its mission through its 51 professional and occupational boards that oversee approximately 750,000 licensees in the state, its Regulated Business section that oversees 60,000 NJ registered businesses, as well as through its Office of Consumer Protection, Bureau of Securities, Charities Registration section, Office of Weights and Measures, and Legalized Games of Chance section.

Consumers who believe they have been cheated or scammed by a business, or suspect any other form of consumer abuse, can file an online complaint with the State Division of Consumer Affairs by visiting its website or by calling 1-800-242-5846 to receive a complaint form by mail.

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