CORRECTION: An earlier version incorrectly reported the owner is from Wethersfield.
The owner of a Danbury cleaning service must repay seven employees $134,000 in back pay and serve time in jail for bilking them on their wages, authorities say.
The Connecticut Department of Labor’s Wage and Workplace Standards Division said Friday that Douglas Agnessanto, 56, who resides in Danbury’s Gaylordsville section, was sentenced Monday in Danbury court to three months in jail and five years of probation for felony violation of state labor and wage laws.
Authorities said Agnessanto was ordered to reimburse the workers $106,964.65 in back pay, plus another $26,806.38 in interest, for unpaid regular wages and overtime for work performed at his Performance Cleaning business in Danbury.
Wage and Workplace Standards Division chief Gary Pechie said regulators chose to go after Agnessanto in criminal court when he repeatedly refused the state’s efforts to resolve the matter.
The labor department says that so far this year it has recovered more than $5.5 million in unpaid and underpaid wages owed Connecticut workers.
