L.A. council candidate pays two workers about half the amount owed in wage theft cases.
Sandra Allen, a candidate for aldermanic district 1 race, has a lot of explaining to do about wage theft at her own behest.
In May 2013, Allen, who is challenging incumbent Robert Garcia, paid one worker $32.88 for cleaning work on a company’s office in West L.A.
For the $5.15 she charged to clean a “common area” and a “small hallway” room on the company, Allen charged the worker $5.11. A small amount of time off would explain why that amount was charged, but not why the worker had to work so long — which was probably a misunderstanding Allen, who said she paid the worker in cash.
For the time when they worked together, on June 9 and 10, Allen did not keep a receipt for the $5.11 she charged Garcia’s office. It was the first time anybody noticed and Garcia and Allen both say they went about cleaning the office properly.
Allen, who is now working as a contractor, says she did not keep a receipt for the cleaning, because she never checked her receipts while the work was done. Allen got paid for the cleaning. As a contractor, she is entitled to no wages for her services.
“Did she do any cleaning on my time or did she work for free?” Garcia said. “She worked for free.”
But the council, which has paid Allen $5,000 as part of its campaign for district 1, didn’t want to go straight to Allen. So it scheduled a hearing on whether Allen had committed a crime after the contractor discovered Allen had not kept a receipt.
Allen refused to hand over her receipts and has since faced a costly lawsuit from the company, which is suing Allen for the money she owes plus interest.
Allen was “foolish” and “thought I could get away with it,” she said in her latest court filing.