Bakersfield real estate agents reach settlement over pay
| Tuesday, Nov 29 2011 05:38 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, Nov 29 2011 05:39 PM
The state has reached a settlement of more than half a million dollars related to a real estate company's failure to pay four Bakersfield agents minimum wage and overtime pay.
ZipRealty agreed to pay $586,068.54 in four wage cases filed with the California Department of Industrial Relations.
The local agents were Patrice Parsons-Adams, Steven Kinney, Nadine Radovicz and Marilee Tomczak.
Radovicz, who worked for the company from 2007 to 2010, said she was "grateful they saved us the aggravation" of going to trial, but she's not celebrating just yet. "I'll believe it when I actually get the check," she said.
ZipRealty, which is based in Emeryville, did not return a telephone call requesting an interview.
The settlement was reached before ZipRealty's motion for a new trial was to be heard in Kern County Superior Court on Nov. 22 but was only made public this week.
The California Department of Industrial Relations' Division of Labor Standards Enforcement first received complaints from the agents in October of last year.
"Real estate traditionally is not known as a low-wage industry," acting Department of Industrial Relations director Christine Baker said in a statement issued Tuesday. "In the current economy, we have seen a change in scenario where real estate agents may earn less than the minimum wage.
"Employers who previously were not concerned with minimum wage issues are now put on notice to ensure they are providing those basic protections to workers."
The settlement requires that the four agents be paid a previous judgment of more than $330,000, plus $25,000 each, for a total payout of $430,202. ZipRealty also must pay $155,866 in attorney's fees and related expenses.
After learning of the Bakersfield cases, California State Labor Commissioner Julie Su in September filed a $17 million lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court on behalf of hundreds of other ZipRealty employees statewide. That lawsuit is pending.
"The decision of the Kern County Superior Court will not be binding in the new litigation, but the analysis of the Bakersfield court is extremely compelling, and we believe that there will be a similar result in the case pending in Alameda County," Su said in a news release.
The settlement here followed Kern County Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuett's Sept. 1 decision in favor of four local ZipRealty agents who had filed unpaid wage claims.
The Bakersfield case originally went to the Labor Commissioner, which awarded the agents a total of $75,000. ZipRealty appealed to Kern County Superior Court, which quadrupled the judgment to more than $330,000 in damages and interest.
ZipRealty filed a motion for a new trial on Nov. 1.
By law, workers in California must be paid at least $8 an hour.
In their complaints, the agents said they were paid less than a living wage despite putting long hours in chasing sales leads for the company.
ZipRealty had argued in court that the workers were entitled to no more than they were paid because they were contract workers, not employees, but the court sided with the agents.
