TORRANCE, Calif. — Torrance Car Wash, located just outside of Los Angeles, was fined for wage theft violations, as reported by MyNewsLA.com.
The business was fined a total of $815,311 with $746,061 to be paid to workers for unpaid minimum wages, overtime, liquidated damages, waiting time penalties, meal and rest period premiums, penalties for failure to provide workers with itemized wage statements, unpaid contract wages and accrued interest.
This information was recently announced by the California Labor Commissioner’s Office.
“The business owners violated labor laws to avoid paying workers the wages they were owed and refused to cooperate with our investigation by withholding documents during our inspection,” Labor Commissioner Lilia GarcÃa-Brower said. “My office had to get additional warrants to conduct our inspection of the business.”
Investigations into Torrance Car Wash began after receiving a referral from the CLEAN Car Wash Campaign.
Representatives from the Labor Commissioner’s Office conducted on-site inspections in mid-March 2022.
“I have been working in carwashes in Southern California for many years and the types of violations these workers in Torrance experienced are unfortunately very common,” Maria Mendez said in a statement provided by the CLEAN Car Wash Campaign. “Speaking up as these workers did is the key to transforming the industry so that it respects our labor.”
Read the original story here.
