Jail sentence for car wash owners

Benny and Nissan Pirian had been charged with 172 counts of violating criminal and labor laws for their treatment of workers. They each entered a plea of no contest to six criminal counts, and were sentenced to a year in jail. They also will be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages. From the LAT:

Witnesses in the case testified that a vast majority of the workers at the car washes were required to arrive at least 15 minutes before their shift, and to stay half an hour after closing. None of the workers were paid overtime and were discouraged from taking rest breaks or were denied breaks entirely, even during times of extreme heat. The workers were paid a flat rate of $35 to $40 a day in violation of minimum-wage laws, according to the deputy city attorneys who tried the case, Julia Figueira-McDonough, Andrew Wong and Akili Nickson. Some worked for tips alone.

The complaint named four of their car wash businesses: Celebrity Car Wash of Hollywood, Five Star Car Wash of Northridge, and Hollywood Car Wash and Vermont Hand Wash of Los Feliz.