Sacramento LGBT center could face class-action suit after former employee claims lost wages

A former Sacramento LGBT Community Center employee alleges that the nonprofit violated a dozen labor laws on pay, reimbursements, workplace safety and breaks in a new lawsuit.

Plaintiff Sabrena Taylor worked overnight as a janitor at the center for five months in 2022, said David Heitstuman, the center’s chief executive officer. The lawsuit, filed Oct. 30, noted that she earned $22 an hour.

Attorneys Roman Otkupman and Nidah Farishta of Westlake Village assert in their legal complaint that Taylor was forced to work through 30-minute meal breaks and 10-minute rest periods. They contend that other workers have been in the same position. Consequently, their complaint seeks class-action status.

Heitstuman said that he had not seen the court filing until The Sacramento Bee emailed him a copy. In a brief scan of the document, he says he spotted a number of factual inaccuracies. In the first paragraph of the introduction, for instance, Otkupman and Farishta describe Taylor as an employee of Willamette Valley Vineyards, not the community center.

“Economic justice is core to the center’s values, and we try very hard to uphold that ideal for both our employees and the broader LGBTQ community,” said Heitstuman, saying he would not comment on particular allegations in “a possible litigation.”

The center’s mission, according to a statement on the website, is supporting the health and wellness of society’s most marginalized people, advocating for equality and justice, and fostering a culturally rich community for local lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer residents.

Former employee seeks lost wages, penalties, other compensation

In the lawsuit, Taylor has leveled a number of allegations at the Sacramento LGBT Community Center, including that the organization:

▪ Failed to provide either 10-minute rest periods or the pay premium of one hour’s pay.

▪ Did not allow Taylor to take a 30-minute meal break meal and did not provide an hour of pay for each missed break.

▪ Routinely required employees to go through a COVID screening test before they clocked in for a scheduled shift and also forced them to work 5-10 minutes after they clocked out. None of this time was compensated.

▪ Did not issue accurate, itemized wage statements.

▪ Did not pay all wages earned within 72 hours of resignation.

▪ Didn’t reimburse the employee for items purchased to perform duties such as cleaning supplies, protective gear or face masks.

Heitstuman said the Sacramento LGBT Community Center “leaned very heavily into COVID safety.”

“We required vaccination of all of our employees, and we provided those vaccines for free,” he added. “We provided free COVID testing during work hours and free COVID tests to all of our employees, community members, anyone who wanted them. To this day we continue to have a weekly testing requirement.”

Taylor’s lawsuit seeks to collect the following payouts from the Sacramento LGBT Community Center if the organization is found to have violated the labor codes:

▪ Penalties: $100 for the initial violation per employee per pay period and $200 for each subsequent violation per employee per pay period. A quarter of those penalties would go to plaintiffs and the other 75% to the California Labor Workforce Development Agency.

▪ Damages: This includes lost wages, earnings, retirement benefits, employee benefits and all other sums of money, together with interest. For instance, each plaintiff is entitled to one hour of pay for each day that the LGBT Center failed to properly provide one or more meal periods, the court filing noted.

▪ Fees: Awards for attorney fees, costs and interest.

Employment lawyer Galen Shimoda said these kind of wage-and-hour, class-action cases are more common in the Sacramento region now than when his firm, Shimoda & Rodriguez Law, started filing them.

By representing a class, Shimoda said, the attorneys can collect a settlement or award sizable enough to pay for all the work it took to win a case. Typically, plaintiffs’ attorneys earn 33% to 35% of any payout, he explained.

If you have 100 employees and each of them is claiming $10,000 in lost wages, he said, you’re looking at a million-dollar case. A settlement or verdict of that size, Shimoda said, also is more likely to push an employer to ensure that workers are being compensated properly or provided all the protections that federal and state laws afford them.

The Bee’s Theresa Clift contributed to this story.