Posts tagged bad checks
Court orders Bay Area Subway franchisees to sell stores, pay employees
October 2, 2023 // A federal court ordered the owners of 14 Subway Bay Area locations to pay employees nearly $1 million in damages and back pay and also to sell or shut their businesses, with any sale proceeds going to the Department of Labor. Federal investigators said franchise owners John and Jessica Meza, of Brentwood, directed children as young as 14 to operate dangerous machinery, assigned minors work hours that violated federal law, and failed to pay their employees regularly, including by issuing hundreds of bad checks and illegally keeping tips left by customers. The Labor Department also charged that the Mezas coerced employees in an attempt to prevent them from cooperating with its investigation and that an associate, Hamza Ayesh, played a role in those efforts, including threatening an employee who complained about receiving a bad check. The stores are located in Antioch, Clayton, Concord, San Pablo, Petaluma, Cotati, Napa, Santa Rosa, Windsor and Vallejo.