California Labor Commissioner Cites Farm Labor Contractor, Holds Growers Liable for
Wage Theft Violations Affecting 1,374 Seasonal Workers
San Bernardino, CA—The Labor
Commissioner’s Office has issued wage theft citations to a large farm labor
contracting operation for failing to timely provide 1,374 seasonal farmworkers
their final pay. Vista Santa Rosa Inc. did not pay discharged workers on the
last day of work as required by law, and the company consistently issued final
paychecks at least 72 hours late. Both client employers and their labor
suppliers are accountable for workplace labor law violations in California.
“Delaying
final paychecks is wage theft and in this case, puts significant pressure on
seasonal workers to abandon their pay or wait and jeopardize competitive job
and lodging openings,” said Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su. “Bringing attention
to this issue during the grape harvest should deter farm labor contractors and
growers from this wage theft practice and help ensure their workers are paid on
time.”
The
Labor Commissioner’s Office launched an investigation in August 2016 after
workers reported violations of late pay to California Rural Legal Assistance, a nonprofit that
provides free legal services. The investigation identified $646,875 in waiting
time penalties, of which $323,729 is due to 867 affected workers in 2016, and
$323,145 is due to 864 workers in 2017.
Vista
Santa Rosa Inc. hires and provides farmworkers to growers in the Coachella
Valley region. In 2016, Vista was a sole-proprietorship owned and operated by
Jose Luis Gomez Jr. In 2017 Gomez began doing business as Vista Santa Rosa Inc.
Both Gomez and his successor company Vista share joint and several liability
for the $646,875 in waiting time penalties.
California
Labor Code section 2810.3 holds client employers – those that obtain or are
provided workers from a subcontractor – responsible for their subcontractor’s
workplace violations. Client employers also liable for Vista’s violations
include:
|
· Brighton Distributing,
Inc.
|
· Alexandra Dates, Inc.
|
|
· Coachella Valley Ranch
Development, Inc.
|
· MICA, LLC
· The Wildwood Group, Inc.
|
|
· East-West Unlimited, LLC
· Anthony Vineyards, Inc.
|
· Sun World International,
LLC
|
Final pay laws
require all wages due to be paid on the last day at the time of separation. If
a worker quits, final wages are due within 72 hours of the notice. Waiting time
penalties are imposed when the employer intentionally fails to pay all wages
due to the employee at the time of separation. This penalty is calculated by
taking the employee’s daily rate of pay and multiplying it by the number of
days the employee was not paid, up to a maximum of 30 days.
Enforcement
investigations typically include a payroll audit of the previous three years to
determine minimum wage, overtime and other labor law violations, and any
payments owed and penalties due are calculated.
The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, or the Labor
Commissioner’s Office, is the division within the Department of Industrial
Relations (DIR) with wide-ranging enforcement responsibilities including
adjudicating wage claims, inspecting workplaces for wage and hour violations,
investigating retaliation complaints and educating the public on labor laws.
In 2014, Labor Commissioner Su launched the Wage Theft is a
Crime multilingual public awareness campaign. The campaign defines
wage theft and informs workers of their rights and the resources available to
them to recover unpaid wages or report other labor law violations.
Employees with work-related questions or
complaints may contact DIR’s Call Center in English or Spanish at 844-LABOR-DIR
(844-522-6734).
Vista Santa Rosa, Inc. is a California Domestic Corporation filed on March 18, 2016 . The company's filing status is listed as Active and its File Number is C3886284. The Registered Agent on file for this company is Jose L. Gomez, Jr. and is located at 62610 Monroe Street, Thermal, CA 92274. The company's mailing address is P.O. Box 875, Thermal, CA 92274.
The company has 1 principal on record. The principal is Jose L. Gomez from Thermal CA.
We also found this company registered at the same location to do farm labor business:
Gomez Farm Labor Contracting, Inc
62610 Monroe Street
Thermal, CA 92274
Phone: (760) 399-1994
Gomez Farm Labor Contracting, Inc is a privately held company in Thermal, CA and is a Single Location business.
Categorized under Farm Labor Contractors. Our records show it was established in 1991 and incorporated in CA. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of 5352461 and employs a staff of approximately 100.