Chavez had no such resolution after winning his case. The 60-year-old immigrant from Mexico had worked and lived at the Stuart Hotel since 2002, first working overnight and evening shifts, before becoming manager and working long days, he told CalMatters.
“My son would tell me, ‘Don’t be stupid, Dad. You work too much, and they pay you too little, and you never rest,’” Chavez told CalMatters. In a recent phone interview, Patel said Chavez did not deserve the money because he didn’t work nearly the number of hours he claimed. The money would be a “donation,” Patel said.Frank Weiser, a lawyer representing Patel, said his client is a leader among local Indian immigrant motel operators. He also called wage claims a “cottage industry” for workers.
An analysis of five years of the agency’s public data by CalMatters revealed that 9% of court judgments were recorded as satisfied, or paid in full. Another 16% of those judgments were paid in part or in installments.Those employers who received judgments against them in 2017 — and therefore had five years to pay workers — paid in full 14% of the time, the data shows.Back to TopState law allows the agency to recover money on behalf of workers but doesn’t require it to do so in every judgment.
There’s this assumption that once you get a judgment, you’ve won. Ultimately, a judgment is just a piece of paper.Criminal cases also can complicate collections. Assemblyman Ash Kalra, a San Jose Democrat who chairs his house’s labor committee, called the low payment of judgments unacceptable.Kalra said he supports adding funding to the Labor Commissioner’s Office to increase staff. But in the face of the office’s current backlogs, he said workers may need to rely on local and county governments to enforce judgments.
It’s a mean country. If you don’t have money you can f right off.
Over a long career my wages were shorted or stolen many times.