The Fresno City Attorney’s Office has filed its first wage theft complaint around one year after forming the Wage Protection Program.
The case was filed against Pinnacle Hospitality Development and subcontractor Juan Moreno in regards to their work on a northwest Fresno Holiday Inn. Pinnacle CEO Lakhwinder Singh Brar was also named in the lawsuit.
Driving the news: Fresno City Councilman Tyler Maxwell and City Attorney Andrew Janz revealed Monday that nine victims who were employed by Moreno filed complaints with the city.
- The employees worked at the hotel from August 2023 to September 2024 to perform jobs such as tile installation, carpet installation, demolition, sheet rock installation, painting, cleaning and other work. Some of the workers were only paid $50 per day.
- The workers generally worked Monday through Saturday for eight to 12 hours per day and were not paid overtime work. They were also not allowed to take breaks at times.
- Moreno also charged at least two of the workers for gas and food without telling them by taking the money out of their paychecks, according to the complaint.
- All of the agreements were made orally with no written contracts.
- The total estimated wage theft for the nine victims is around $58,000.
Go deeper: City Attorney Andrew Janz said the city has evidence that is supported by text messages, videos, pictures, a police report, a lack of pay stubs and statements that were provided to investigators by the victims.
- Punitive damages could total in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, per Janz, with Pinnacle and Moreno facing significant liability.
- Moreno’s company is also not a legitimate business that is filed with the California Secretary of State’s Office, Janz said, with all of the workers hired informally and were paid with cash.
Zoom out: The City Attorney’s Office is currently looking at around a dozen wage theft cases for potential legal action.
The backstory: Two years ago California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 594 into law, which gave public prosecutors the power to prosecute wage theft cases if the California Labor Commissioner did not take action on such complaints.
- Last year the Fresno City Council passed an ordinance giving the City Attorney’s Office the authority to prosecute wage theft cases by forming the Wage Protection Program.
What they’re saying: “It is a process that has taken time because we wanted to get it right in order to bring justice to the victims brave enough to come forward and seek help,” Maxwell said. “And while this is only the first case we are filing, the existing infrastructure we have built up will allow us to initiate these types of cases much more swiftly moving forward, and I guarantee you there are more cases that will be coming forward.”
- Janz said the city’s goal is simply to make the victims whole, but if the parties are not cooperative, the case – which is currently a civil lawsuit – could become a criminal matter.
- “We’re not trying to put anyone in jail, but that is something that is potentially out there,” Janz said.
