California Attorney General Rob Bonta Thursday sued a Los Angeles home health care company and its prior operators for allegedly misclassifying hundreds of workers as independent contractors instead of employees, resulting in the denial of workplace protections.
The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges Care Specialist HCS Inc., formerly doing business as TLC Home Care Services, and prior operators Benjamin Cabrera and Geoffrey Jimenez were in violation of California’s labor laws and Unfair Competition Law.
The complaint alleges that since at least 2016, the defendants’ misclassification of hundreds of workers resulted in extensive wage theft and caused workers to be denied basic workplace protections such as a minimum wage, overtime pay, meal breaks and rest periods, paid sick leave, and workers’ compensation benefits, among other benefits.
For example, some caregivers were paid as little as $120 a day for working 24-hour shifts, which yielded a $5 hourly pay rate with no overtime pay, according to the lawsuit.
Cabrera and Jimenez could not immediately be reached for comment.
The lawsuit also alleges the company misrepresented workers’ employment status to its clients, falsely telling clients that it treated its care workers as employees when it did not. The complaint further alleges that the company included non-compete clauses in its client contracts, which are void in California.
“Misclassifying workers is illegal and harms both employees and the state,”...
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