From JDSupra, Maria Arakelian, Aaron Colby and Janet Grumer discuss a recent case in which Trader Joe’s and the firm that supplier workers to Trader’s Joe’s were both liable for unpaid overtime and recommend companies choose any intermediaries wisely. Maria, Aaron and Janet write:
On November 5, 2019, the California Labor Commissioner cited Inventory Professionals Inc. and Trader Joe’s for fines totaling more than $1.6 million, holding them jointly liable for wage violations for workers supplied to Trader Joe’s.
Inventory Professionals Inc. provides Trader Joe’s with employees who perform inventory control work. The Labor Commissioner cited the two companies after its investigation determined that 64 employees worked approximately 65 hours a week during a three-year period ending in August 2018 without overtime wages.
Even though Inventory Professionals Inc. employed the workers, the Labor Commissioner also found Trader Joe’s liable under California’s client-employer liability law, in effect since 2015. The law holds businesses that obtain labor from a subcontractor jointly liable for the owed wages, damages and penalties, and workers’ compensation violations for the subcontracted workers.
California Labor Code section 2810.3 applies to businesses with more than five workers supplied by the labor subcontractor and 25 employees total (including those supplied through a labor contractor) that uses “workers” to perform labor “within its usual course of business,” which means “regular and customary work” of the client employer’s business.
To read more about this law that took effect in 2015, see our previous advisory here.
Read the full story at California Businesses: Remember to Choose Labor Contractors Wisely | Davis Wright Tremaine LLP – JDSupra
