Labor Department Files Charges Against Union City Company

UNION CITY, CA - The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against a company that runs elderly living facilities in Union City for allegedly violating wage and hour regulations.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The defendants are owners of San Miguel Homes for the Elderly LLC, a company that operates three Union City residential care facilities for the elderly.

The lawsuit seeks back wages and damages from the owners - Precilla San Miguel, Teofilo Cris Sanque and Ryan San Miguel - for 22 employees who allegedly worked at a substandard pay rate for their company.

During a period beginning Oct. 21, 2012, the lawsuit alleges, the defendants violated federal wage law by paying workers for eight hours of work or a flat daily rate without accounting for all hours worked.

Labor officials said the employees routinely worked more than 40 hours per week, but were not compensated at a time-and-a-half overtime rate. The lawsuit also alleges that the defendants failed to keep adequate records, or any at all, of the hours worked by employees during all or some work weeks.

Owners of San Miguel Homes for the Elderly LLC were not immediately available to respond to the allegations this afternoon.

--Bay City News