Workers, City Settle With Canoga Park Home Care Provider

City Attorney Mike Feuer has reached a settlement with a San Fernando Valley home care provider that allegedly failed to pay its employees minimum wage and overtime. Emelyn Nishi and her companies Health Alliance Nurses Corp. in Van Nuys and Hand Homecare Provider Inc. in Canoga Park have agreed to pay $250,000 in restitution to settle the allegations. The money will be deposited in a restitution fund handled by a qualified third party. Attempts to reach Nishi were not successful. Feuer said the settlement sends a signal that his office takes allegations of wage theft seriously. “Hard-working men and women have the right to a minimum wage and overtime. No worker should be forced into poverty because an employer denies them these rights, as we alleged when we filed this case,” Feuer said in a statement. Nishi and the companies are alleged in the complaint filed last year to have paid its employees, mostly Filipino immigrants, as little as $5.50 per hour or less. They also allegedly pressured the workers to falsify time records to avoid overtime payments and routinely threatened them with termination or blacklisting within the industry. In addition to the restitution, the defendants have also agreed to paying $100,000 in civil penalties and costs.