A California senior living company and its former CEO are jointly liable for almost $709,000 in underpaid minimum wage, overtime and contract wages to 48 workers as well as other expenses and penalties, according to the California Labor Commissioner’s Office.
Officials said they began investigating Amore Retirement Living, Daly City, CA, in June 2018 after receiving a complaint that the employer did not have workers’ compensation insurance. Investigators found that the 53-bed community had lacked coverage for the previous five years. The assisted living home’s licensee, Krysella Trismeo Corp., was cited $469,103 on June 20, 2018, for failure to obtain and maintain workers’ compensation insurance coverage.
But investigators also found other labor law violations, officials said.
“This residential care facility required its workers to be available around the clock but didn’t pay them a just day’s wages,” California Labor Secretary Julie A. Su said. “In industries where employees are expected to work overtime or on-call, California law requires that they be paid for all hours worked. Anything less is wage theft.”
For 28 months ending in October 2017, the Labor Commissioner’s Office said, Amore did not provide overtime or meal periods for employees, who worked an average of 58 hours a week. An audit of payroll and time records also found that 29 employees worked split shifts without being paid the one-hour premium required to provide around-the-clock care to the residents.
The citations against Amore, which total $708,521, including civil penalties, name both Krysella Trismeo Corp. and then-CEO Sheryll Miranda-Sunga as jointly liable for the so-called wage theft. The employer owes workers $623,871 in unpaid minimum wages and overtime, liquidated damages, meal period and wage statement violations, split shift premiums and waiting time penalties, with an additional $7,766 for contract wages due for 40 of the workers, officials said. The citations also include $84,650 in civil penalties due to the state for minimum wage, overtime, split shift premium, meal period and itemized wage statement violations.
The new owner of the Krysella Trismeo Corp. referred requests for comments to the former owner, who reportedly was not available to comment.
