LOS ANGELES — Another Los Angeles carwash is in hot water after Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. filed a lawsuit seeking $2.6 million in damages for illegally forcing employees to work nearly 60-hour weeks without overtime, ignoring minimum wage laws and denying injured employees workers' compensation benefits, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s office.

The Dec. 15 release said Brown's legal action against Auto Spa Express, Inc. and its owner, Jonathan Min Kim, and Sunset Car Wash, LLC, was part of his statewide crackdown on companies that break worker-protection laws.

"Most companies in California comply with state wage and benefit laws, but if you're running a firm that's exploiting your workers in this economy when people are desperate for jobs, we want you to know that we will find you, we will stop you and we will file some of the toughest legal actions in the nation against you," Brown said in the release.

According to the release, the Underground Economy Unit of the Attorney General’s Office received numerous complaints from employees at Auto Spa Express carwash facility located at 2028 Sunset Blvd., which employed between 23 and 41 people, depending on the time of year. The facility was sold to Sunset Car Wash, LLC earlier this year.

In February, the state filed charges against the Pirian brothers, also contending there were similar labor violations at their family-owned carwashes.

The suit against Auto Spa Express contends that from 2006 to 2008, the company failed to:

• Pay the state minimum wage to its employees. Employees were often paid $6.32 an hour; the state's minimum wage is $8.00 an hour. On days when there were no customers, employees sometimes would not be paid at all.  
• Pay overtime. Employees were often forced to work six days a week, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., without overtime pay.  
• Provide accurate itemized statements of hours and wages to employees. Employees were often paid in cash so that the company would not have to pay into the State Unemployment Fund or withhold pay for state taxes. 
• Provide safe working conditions or report industrial injuries suffered by employees.  

To read the full story, click here.

For related information, click here.

To return to today’s news, click here.

To discuss this topic with other industry professionals, click here.

For a free subscription to PC&D e-News, the twice-weekly news service for the professional car care industry, click here.

For a free introductory subscription (or subscription renewal) to Professional Carwashing & Detailing magazine, the leading publication for the car care industry, click here.