Business & Tech
Oakland Company Ordered To Pay Back Pay, Penalties
The employees worked up to 14 hours a day, 6 days a week and were paid a flat daily wage.
OAKLAND, CA — The California Labor Commissioner's Office today ordered an Oakland company to pay more than $3.5 million in back wages and penalties for misclassifying 119 workers as independent contractors.
Attic Pros is an attic cleaning company.
The amount includes $2,109,480 in back pay and other compensation for the workers between July 2014 and March 2017, and $1,481,600 in civil penalties.
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The compensation for the workers includes $191,400 in unpaid minimum wages, $321,330 in unpaid overtime wages, $191,400 in liquidated damages on unpaid minimum wages and $1,405,350 in waiting time penalties.
Waiting time penalties are fines imposed when an employer fails to provide workers their final paychecks. The penalty calculating by multiplying the worker's average daily pay times the number of days the payment was late, up to a maximum of 30 days.
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The civil penalties collected will be placed in the state's General Fund as required by law, the agency said.
State Labor Commissioner Julie Su said in a statement, "This is an egregious case of wage theft, with workers misclassified and denied a just day's pay."
The agency said investigators found that Attic Pros' employees worked 10 to 14 hours per day up to six days a week, and were paid a daily rate regardless of the actual number of hours worked, thus putting their earnings below minimum wage.
The Labor Commissioner's Office is part of the Department of Industrial Relations. It is officially called the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.
— Bay City News; Image via Shutterstock