Several former workers of the recently closed Pure Care Carwash in Woodland Hills held a protest alleging wage theft by the business owner.
A group of over 20 workers and members of CLEAN, an advocacy organization that supports carwashers, gathered on the sidewalk outside the Ventura Blvd. car wash on Jan. 26. They held signs and chanted in English and Spanish: “Workers united, will never be divided!” and “Pure Care Carwash you’re no good, pay your workers like you should!”
Workers Cite Stolen Wages and Illegal Quotas
An estimated 15 workers claim they haven’t been paid for the full hours they’ve worked – many seek financial compensation for up to two months or more worth of regular wages (at $16 per hour), overtime pay and/or commissions.
Most are also now out of a job – Pure Care shut down without warning a few days after a Jan. 18 news segment aired on a local Spanish-language television network with carwashers from Pure Care voicing their grievances about not getting paid.
Jose Pablo Salazar, who quit working at Pure Care last summer, said he felt forced to leave the job because he hadn’t been paid for “four weeks and two days” of work. He said he needed money for essentials – paying rent and buying groceries – and couldn’t survive on tips alone.
“I deserve to get paid for all the hours I worked – we all do,” said Salazar. “He didn’t pay me, so I had to find another job, but I’ve been trying to get him to pay me [what he owes me] for more than four months now.”
Some workers even received paychecks that bounced, including Luis Martinez.
Martinez, who had worked at Pure Care as a carwasher for three years, said they owe him back wages for at least 130 hours that he worked between early December and mid-January.
Martinez said that before they closed, Pure Care was not only bouncing checks and delaying pay, ownership of the car wash also reportedly changed hands in early January – from Yan Kriv to the current owner, Garry Itkin.
“I feel betrayed because my manager contacted Yan [and Yan told him], ‘I don’t have anything to do with [the business] anymore,’” recounted Martinez, noting that it was confusing for him and other workers because Yan was still showing up for work at Pure Care. “And the new boss – Garry – every time we ask him for money, he says, ‘I don’t have money; I can’t pay you guys.’ But he would show up in a Mercedes G-Wagon, a Ferrari, a Rolls-Royce – he has all these cars and he lives in Beverly Hills, but he doesn’t have the money to pay us?”
Despite the lack of consistent pay, Martinez said they were still expected to show up for work every day. Before the car wash closed its doors, the new owner started asking workers to meet quotas “if we wanted to get paid,” he recalled. He said that four to five workers were expected to complete a combined total of $1,000 worth of car washes each day to receive $200 in pay.
“That’s illegal – they’re supposed to be paid an hourly wage,” said Andrea Gonzalez, organizing director for the CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, which is based in Los Angeles. CLEAN representatives got in touch with Pure Care carwashers after the Jan. 18 broadcast. They explained their rights to the workers, put them in touch with free legal services and organized the Jan. 26 demonstration.
The San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol has called and messaged Itkin directly and Pure Care Carwash, but they have not answered or replied to inquiries.
LA is Wage Theft Capital of the Nation
Joe Philipson, an attorney with Bet Tzedek Legal Services’ Employment Rights Project in LA, addressed the demonstrators, calling Los Angeles “the wage theft capital of the country.”
According to data from the Los Angeles Worker Center Network, more than $26 million is stolen from workers in LA County every week, with 80% of low-wage workers in Los Angeles – who are predominantly immigrant workers, women and people of color – experiencing wage theft.
“Employers like Pure Care Carwash are the reason that our city holds this disgraceful title,” said Philipson. Fortunately, he added, the city of LA and the state of California also have many laws intended to protect workers and help ensure they get “paid for every hour that they work.” He said current and past owners of Pure Care may be held liable for any wages owed to workers.
“We also want to remind all business owners in Los Angeles that wage theft is a serious violation, and in some cases can even result in criminal penalties,” he continued. “We will continue to support the workers of Pure Care Carwash until they receive all of their wages.”
History of Supporting Carwashers
Flor Rodriguez, executive director of CLEAN, was also on hand for the demonstration at Pure Care, which until recently employed a fraction of the 10,000-plus car wash workers in LA. Statewide there are currently more than 2,500 car wash businesses in California. Unfortunately, as of 2023, only 600 were registered with the Labor Commissioner’s Office (DLSE), which enforces labor laws intended to help combat wage theft and protect workers from retaliation.
“That’s why we’re here,” said Rodriguez regarding CLEAN, which dates back to 2007. She said CLEAN takes a “holistic approach” to improving the lives of car wash workers by connecting them with a range of services and resources to help them both in and outside of the workplace.
When workers do seek help from CLEAN in addressing issues with management, Rodriguez said they can serve as an intermediary, “to accompany workers meeting with management, to sit down and hear them out, to interpret for them and just to make things as easy as possible.”
“Sometimes we have a conversation with management [and] there might be a negotiation and it ends there,” she said, noting that the issues aren’t always monetary. They can be about workplace safety, the need for drinking water or access to the restroom. “It’s not always over wages.”
But at Pure Care Carwash the issue is exactly that – about the money owed for unpaid labor, according to the workers alleging wage theft.
Martinez, who has been looking for a new job, said he hopes they will finally get paid for the many long hours they worked.
“Today we took the first step,” he said, “and we’ll take it step by step and see what happens.”