After tip from California workers, Justice officials say company owes big money to employees, feds

In 2019, unionized construction workers raised alarms about a company building luxury apartments in Oakland that appeared to be skirting its financial obligations, both to the state and its employees. That tip would set off a years-long investigation by the California Department of Justice, which accused the Kentucky-based company, US Framing West Inc., of violating state labor laws at that Oakland site, as well as committing tax evasion and wage theft in several other construction projects across the state, including some that had received public funding. “We also allege that, at a public works project in Cathedral City, US Framing West also underpaid its workers by approximately $40,000.” Bonta and his team have filed 31 criminal charges, including grand theft, payroll tax evasion, prevailing wage theft and filing false documents, against US Framing West and two of its employees. The attorney representing Krebs, Jeffrey Rutherford, said he and his client “intend to vigorously fight the charges.” Between 2018 and 2022, US Framing West worked on several construction projects across the state, including in Alameda, Los Angeles, Contra Costa, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, according to the attorney general’s office. California A year after ‘hot labor summer,’ California Legislature chills on union demands amid budget concerns A year ago, thousands of workers went on strike across California, and what became known as “hot labor summer” was reflected in mandatory wage increases and other state policy wins remarkable even for a Democratic-controlled Legislature sympathetic to union concerns.