Wage theft won’t be tolerated in Sacramento

By Fabrizio Sasso
Executive Director, Sacramento CLC

Disgraced Sacramento City Council member Sean Loloee resigned from office this month after being indicted on more than two dozen labor-related federal charges.

This Labor Council has been pushing for his resignation, and for justice, for more than three years and it is gratifying to see that justice is finally coming for the many workers exploited by a man who was supposed to be serving our city and our communities.

In 2019, when Loloee was first running for office, this Council endorsed him in the primary election, believing that he cared about the North Sacramento community he wanted to serve.

But within months of that endorsement, the truth began to emerge. A half dozen workers from one of his Viva Supermarkets came to the office of the Labor Council to ask for our help. They detailed terrible abuse, including wage theft, intimidation and even threats to turn workers in to immigration authorities if they complained about these abysmal conditions. We revoked our endorsement, and began to work to help these employees.

In the recently-released federal indictment, it has been revealed that federal authorities have investigated Loloee’s supermarkets at least three times for labor violations. In this latest investigation, investigators found that Loloee was again engaging in wage theft and intimidation. The indictment alleges he often paid employees in cash, failed to pay overtime and hired undocumented workers specifically for their vulnerability. In addition, the complaint says that Loloee paid some employees with store vouchers instead of regular pay, or paid them with checks that could only be cashed in a Viva Supermarket with a surcharge that put some of that pay back into Loloee’s pockets.

This is the kind of exploitation that is abhorrent to those of us in the Labor movement, and the exact reasons that unions exist—to ensure that individual workers aren’t alone against unscrupulous employers.

But more needs to be done. If the indictment is proven true, Loloee’s abuse went on for decades, when it should have been stopped.

Luckily, we live in a state that cares about workers. On Jan. 1, a new law went into effect that will help fight the nearly $2 billion a year in wage theft that California workers face.

Assembly Bill No. 594 expands who can go after bad employers. Previously, only the state Labor Commissioner pursued these type of cases. Now, public prosecutors such as the state Attorney General, a district attorney, a city attorney, a county counsel, or any other city or county prosecutor can prosecute certain wage and hour violations that occur within their geographic jurisdiction.

This is an important expansion of power that Labor leaders across the state fought for, and one that this Council will push to be used locally.

It is a travesty that Loloee, who claimed to be a public servant, was secretly harming our community and these workers.

But if any good comes from it, it is the knowledge that Sacramento won’t tolerate exploitation, and will always fight for our most vulnerable.