Tyler Maxwell and Andrew Janz host a news conference on a wage theft resolution in this January 2024 file photo.

Fresno may soon have a new policy to combat wage theft that would be a first in the Golden State.

Fresno City Councilmember Tyler Maxwell and City Attorney Andrew Janz on Tuesday announced a resolution scheduled to go before the Council on Thursday.

If adopted, the resolution authorizes the City Attorney to begin establishing a dedicated division focused prosecuting wage theft cases for Fresno employers.

If passed, it would make Fresno the first city in California to pursue both civil and criminal action against employers committing wage theft, authorized by the state with the recent passing of Assembly Bill 594.

AB 594, which went into effect at the start of the year, authorizes a public prosecutor to initiate civil or criminal action for a violation of specified provisions of the Labor Code, or to enforce those provisions independently, until Jan. 1, 2029.

Maxwell said that wage theft affects all industries, including construction, restaurants, hotels and more.

“It affects technology,” Maxwell said. “We saw what happened with Bitwise last year. We want to make sure those kinds of instances never occur again.”

Examples of wage theft include being paid less than minimum wage per hour, not being allowed to take meal or rest breaks, and or preventative cool-down breaks for farm laborers, not receiving final wages in a timely manner, misclassification of employees to benefit owners and bounced paychecks.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, workers lost nearly $2 billion from not being paid the minimum wage in 2015.

Chuck Riojas, executive secretary and treasurer of the Fresno, Madera, Kings, and Tulare Building Trades Council, said he has witnessed this practice first-hand in the trades, including workers misclassified or not paid prevailing wages.

Riojas said he is pleased that the City Attorney’s Office will first focus on adjudicating existing cases, and then take on new cases in the future.

“It is proactive. What it’s meant to do is to stop the bad player from doing anything that hurts working families in our community. Hopefully this is a preventative measure, not a punitive measure,” Riojas said.

He said this policy is meant to act as a “shield for working families, not a sword for those workers looking for a paycheck.”

Along with the City of Fresno being a leader in passing such a policy under AB 594, Riojas expects it will also be a leader in keeping track of instances of wage theft.

Given the sheer number of statewide cases, it is predicted that there are hundreds if not thousands of cases locally, Janz said.

In 2022 the California Labor Commissioner’s Office received 38,000 wage claims.

Janz said that criminal penalties and prosecution for employers would be the last resort. The aim is more to educate employers that make mistakes.

“The goal is ultimately to make the employee whole. How do you do that if you send an employer to jail? It is obviously going to be something that will be held over their heads, if we have repeat offenders or for those who don’t want to come into compliance,” Janz said.

The city will create an intake system that will be both on the City of Fresno’s website and the City Attorney’s website. Under the law, any case that is submitted that the city believes has merit will be forwarded to the State Labor Commissioner first.

The State Laborer Commissioner will then have 30 days to act, and if they don’t, the city retains jurisdiction over the matter.

Employers and the California Chamber of Commerce are especially concerned about the impact of AB 594 in concert with the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), which authorized aggrieved employees to file lawsuits to recover civil penalties on behalf of themselves, other employees and the State of California for labor code violations.

Janz said they will look at everything on a case-by-case basis and will work to make sure they are not violating any “double jeopardy rules” in actions against employers and coordinate with other state agencies.

Janz said he hopes other cities will follow suit if the proposal is adopted.