California Reaches $1M Settlement in Wage Theft Case

The Labor Commissioner’s Office settled a lawsuit against Glendale, California-based Calcrete Construction Inc. for $1 million for multiple wage theft violations, including overtime and paid sick leave law violations, affecting 249 construction workers.

The office began investigating in October 2016 after receiving a complaint from the Carpenters/Contractors Cooperation Committee, a union-affiliated, nonprofit that advocates for workplace compliance within the construction industry.

LCO’s investigation reportedly found that Calcrete failed to pay workers for overtime hours, allocate pay for sick leave and provide proper wage statements. As one example, Calcrete employees regularly worked 45-68 hours a week but were not paid overtime during a two-year period audited from 2014 to 2016. The settlement will pay workers overtime wages owed with interest, with payments ranging from $344 to $20,893.