Thread by @reveal

1/ Across California, at least 20 companies providing care for the elderly, disabled and mentally ill continue to operate illegally after being cited for failing to pay their workers. revealnews.org/article/califo…

2/ This was supposed to have been sorted out in 2015.

That’s when @JerryBrownGov signed the Fair Day’s Pay Act, which barred companies with outstanding wage theft judgments from conducting business in the state. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billText…

3/ We found that the state Department of Social Services’ Community Care Licensing Division, which is in charge of licensing facilities for the elderly and disabled, has not acted.

4/ We know that the agency received debtors’ names from the state labor commissioner’s office over the last year or so.

We also know these companies continue to operate despite their outstanding wage theft judgments.

5/ We asked the acting director of the Department of Social Services why this is happening.

She turned down our request for an interview.

Instead, an agency spokesman, Michael Weston, provided a statement:

6/ Inspection records available online show no indication that licensing officials considered debtors’ outstanding wage theft judgments when they visited the facilities in recent months.

7/ Meanwhile, legal experts say proving a connection between residents’ health and safety and wage theft is not required under the Fair Day’s Pay Act for state licensing officials to take action.

8/ And some argue that licensing officials could revoke the licenses of care homes that fail to pay judgments because wage theft inflicts harm on workers and seniors, a violation of CA’s health and safety code: codes.findlaw.com/ca/health-and-…

9/ So what does this dynamic look like on the ground?

Let’s take the case of Catuira Home Inc, which runs a care home in California’s Central Valley.

10/ In 2017, the state labor commissioner issued orders for Catuira to pay five caregivers more than $870,000 in unpaid wages and penalties. documentcloud.org/documents/5975…

11/ Soon after that, its co-owner filed for bankruptcy. Then the company itself filed.

The bankruptcy trustees in both cases decided that neither the co-owner nor the company had enough assets to pay their creditors. So their debt was effectively erased.

12/ Today, the home continues to operate under the same name, and its workers STILL have not been paid what they were owed.

Among them is Fidel Japos. He effectively earned about $3/hour. He’s owed about $63,000, which he never got.

13/ In California alone, there currently are about 400 open investigations into wage theft involving residential care homes for the elderly and disabled, according to the labor commissioner’s office.

14/ At least 150 workers who filed successful claims against such facilities still have not received their wages, according to the agency.

15/ This is part of a nationwide pattern.

In a new investigation out this week, we found that wage theft and abuse are rampant in America’s multibillion-dollar senior residential care industry. revealnews.org/article/califo…