CLACKAMAS, Ore. -- Nearly two dozen temporary employees of the Clackamas Safeway warehouse claim that an employment agency owes them for weeks of work and isn’t paying up.
Brooks Gulleff is among those who filed complaints against the Pleasanton, California company, Aptitude Staffing Solutions .
“I’m owed $880 for nearly two weeks of hard work where I came home with bruises all over my body,” said Gulleff.
Gulleff found the temporary job at Safeway through an ad on Craigslist. She said Aptitude Staffing Solutions paid more than $13 an hour and she jumped at the chance to work after her unemployment ran out.
But since early July, she’s been calling and e-mailing the company demanding they pay up.
“I’ve gotten a total of about three responses from Darren Lawson, the owner of Aptitude Staffing Solutions, and all three times he’s promised to send me my check which never came. I don’t blame Safeway because Safeway paid Aptitude Solutions.”
In a statement to KGW, Safeway spokesperson Dan Floyd said, “We have terminated our relationship with Aptitude Staffing and are demanding that they honor their obligation to pay their employees. We have verified that we paid Aptitude fully and in a timely manner. We sent payment to the appropriate address, and we verified that they were deposited.”
Lawson did not return several phone calls or e-mails from KGW to respond. A receptionist who said she doesn’t work for the company said none of the phone numbers they have for Lawson work anymore.
A man who said he is Lawson’s landlord said he’s been paid for the suite Lawson rents at a Pleasanton, California mall.
Wage and Hour agencies for both Oregon and California are investigating numerous complaints by employees who previously worked for Aptitude. Bob Estabrook with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries said the company has until later this week to respond to its investigation.
“If they don’t respond after a demand letter, a company faces fines and paying interest on the money owed,” said Estabrook. “They also may have to pay the employees twice what they owe them.”
