Two Americas

Middle-class sheep, stop deluding yourselves that you'll be safe from traditional pre-regulatory labor practices much longer. You'll be so fucking happy to have work you won't dare to complain, & even if you sued & won you'd never collect a dime.

State prosecutors filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit Monday against the owners of celebrity dining favorite Koi for allegedly exploiting workers at eight carwashes, including five in Southern California.

The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court claims members of the Sikder family routinely denied workers at the carwashes that they own minimum wage and overtime, failed to pay wages owed to those who quit or were fired, denied rest and meal breaks and created false time sheets.

All well & good that these wanna-be feudal barons are being sued, but why so long?

The businesses in Fair Oaks, Folsom, Irvine, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Santa Monica, San Ramon and Venice operated for years without licenses from the labor commissioner, which are required under California law, according to the state attorney general's office.

[...]

"While Koi served up yellowtail tartare and Kobe beef carpaccio to Hollywood celebrities, the restaurant's owners routinely denied wages, breaks and overtime pay to workers at their unlicensed carwashes," Brown said in a statement.

An example cited by state prosecutors was the case of Sergio Diaz-Esquivel and Juvenal Diaz-Esquivel, who quit their jobs at the Wash & Go Hand Wash in Irvine after not being paid overtime or for all their hours, despite working seven-day weeks.

In August 2007, they obtained judgments totaling $14,708.24, including penalties for the car wash's willful failure to pay them their wages. The car wash still has not paid them.

Brown said it was in sharp contrast to the money the family earned by owning and operating Koi, a high-end Japanese restaurant with locations in West Hollywood, New York, Las Vegas and Bangkok.

"The restaurants gross millions of dollars annually and are regularly featured in gossip magazines and on television shows, including HBO's 'Entourage,' because of their celebrity clientele," Brown said.