October - December 2018

Oatridge Security Group, Inc., Evergreen Fire Alarms, LLC, and Oatridge-Evergreen b(A) JV, LLC ("Oatridge"), a security company that contracts with various Seattle companies and employs between 50-249 employees, agreed to settle allegations under the PSST Ordinance. OLS alleged that prior to February 2016, Oatridge did not allow employees to use vacation for sick leave although they had a vacation policy in place. Additionally, despite being a Tier 2 employer (i.e. employer with 50-249 FTEs), they only provided 40 hours of sick leave per year. The total financial remedy was $15,590.75 to 64 affected employees.

• Takeaway: Employers with vacation or paid time off policies must still comply with all the requirements of the PSST Ordinance and permit employees to use time for covered foreseeable and unforeseeable sick and safe time reasons.

WTC Ventures, Inc. dba Wendy's and Burger Management Systems Washington, Inc. dba Wendy's, WTCWEND ("Wendy's"), which operates several restaurants in the Pacific Northwest, with three Seattle locations, agreed to settle allegations under the PSST ordinance. Wendy's has between 50 and 80 Seattle employees and more than 250 full-time equivalent employees worldwide. The complete financial remedy was $14,641.39, which included $13,094.98 to 48 affected employees and $1,546.41 to the City of Seattle.

Supervalu Inc., a retail grocery company with 29,000 employees worldwide, agreed to settle allegations under the Fair Chance Employment (FCE) ordinance. The company no longer does business in Seattle but agreed to pay $515 to one affected applicant for failing to identify the criminal history records it relied upon; give the applicant an opportunity to explain or correct the records and provide verifiable information of good conduct or rehabilitation; or hold the position open to the applicant for two days.

Seattle Goodwill Industries ("Goodwill"), which operates five Seattle locations, agreed to settle allegations under the Wage Theft Ordinance. At one of its locations, OLS alleged that Goodwill was automatically deducting meal periods for its dispatcher employees, even when those employees worked through their meal periods. The total financial remedy was $5,049.78 to two affected employees.

• Takeaway: Employees must be paid for all hours worked, including time spent working during missed meal periods.

The Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation ("Parks"), which employs between 900-1300 employees throughout the City, agreed to settle allegations to fully compensate employees for their work. OLS alleged that during summers of 2015, 2016, and 2017, Parks failed to compensate employees for time spent setting up and breaking down beach equipment before and after scheduled shifts at nine City-operated beaches. In the settlement, Parks admitted to a second violation of the ordinance and agreed to pay a total financial remedy of $274,969.11 to 180 affected employees

RKL Group, Inc. dba Home Instead Senior Care ("Home Instead"), a franchise that provides home health care in Seattle, agreed to settle allegations under the Minimum Wage, Wage Theft, and PSST ordinances. Home Instead employed approximately 100 employees in Seattle in 2017 and is considered a Schedule 1 (i.e. large) employer under the Minimum Wage ordinance. The company agreed to pay a total financial remedy of $25,726.69 which included $25,525.72 to 70 affected employees and a $200.97 penalty to the City of Seattle for failing to pay the Schedule 1 minimum wage rate until the fall of 2017. Home Instead also agreed to provide a total of 435 hours of PSST to employees who received insufficient PSST carry-over from prior years.

Paramount Rehabilitation, a rehabilitation and nursing facility that employs over 200,000 employees worldwide, agreed to settle allegations of retaliatory termination under the PSST ordinance for issues relating to the employer's call-out procedure. The employer agreed to pay a total financial remedy of $9,009.44 to one affected employee.

BAIPAI, L.L.C. dba BAIPAI LLC, BAIPAI Restaurant, a Thai restaurant in Ravenna that closed in March 2018, and owner Jack Kanand agreed to settle allegations under the PSST, Wage Theft, and Minimum Wage Ordinances. In addition to not providing PSST, OLS alleged the restaurant paid subminimum wages and, in some cases, an insufficient amount of tips per hour to qualify for the lower minimum wage. The total financial remedy was $30,033.60 to 73 affected employees.

• Takeaway: In 2018, small employers could pay the lower minimum wage ($11.50/hr) only if their employees earn at least $2.50/hr in tips (or if they provide medical benefits to employees). In 2019, tipped employees must earn at least $3/hr in tips if they earn the minimum wage ($12/hr).

Dolly, Inc., a moving company employing approximately 25 employees in Seattle and operating 11 locations nationwide, negotiated a settlement to resolve alleged violations of the PSST ordinance. Dolly agreed to pay a total financial remedy of $1,388.17 to six affected employees and to reinstate a total of 102.3 hours of PSST to ten affected employees.

Cater2.me, a catering business that primarily provides meals for business offices and operates one Seattle location and 11 locations worldwide, settled allegations under the FCE ordinance by agreeing to update its FCE policy to comply with the law.

Big Fish Company, a gaming company with one location in Seattle that employs over 500 employees, agreed to settle allegations under the FCE ordinance. The company failed to identify the criminal history records it relied upon or conduct a legitimate business reason analysis and did not give the applicant an opportunity to explain or correct the records and provide verifiable information of good conduct or rehabilitation. The settlement required a payment of $515 to the affected individual.