A trio of housekeepers who sheriff’s deputies say made stealing from elderly clients the real family business will all be spending the holidays behind bars or on probation.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley sentenced 27-year-old Honduran native Karla Elvir to a year in jail and two years of probation last week for stealing more than $6,000 in jewelry from elderly clients whose houses she was cleaning.

More at source: MyPalmBeach

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SAN DIEGO — The co-owner of a Southern California janitorial company accused of using straw owners to conceal the existence of hundreds of workers to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes and insurance premiums pleaded not guilty Wednesday to multiple felony charges.

Woo “Stephanie”  Kwon, 59, was ordered held on $1 million bail pending a review hearing Jan. 4.

She and her husband, 62-year-old Hyok “Steven” Kwon — the owners of Good Neighbor Services — were indicted on charges of workers’ compensation fraud, payroll tax evasion and extortion. Each faces 31 years in prison if convicted, according to authorities.

More at source: Fox News

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The owners of a Southern California janitorial company that provides cleaning staff to major hotels in San Diego, Los Angeles and Riverside counties were indicted on charges of workers’ compensation fraud, payroll tax evasion and extortion, authorities announced Monday.

Hyok “Steven Kwon and his wife, Woo “Stephanie” Kwon — the owners of Good Neighbor Services — each face up to 31 years in prison if convicted.

Good Neighbor Services provides cleaning staff to major hotels such as the Hotel Del Coronado, Loews Coronado, La Costa Resort and Spa, the Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons and the Hilton and Hyatt hotel chains.

The investigation — which began 2 1/2 to three years ago — allegedly uncovered a methodical and systematic shell game involving six straw owners. Those straw owners were used to conceal the existence of hundreds of hotel workers to avoid paying millions of dollars in insurance premiums and payroll taxes, the government alleges.

“These defendants lied on the backs of their employees, who were cleaning rooms in some of the most prestigious hotels in California,” said San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. “If employees got hurt on the job, they were threatened with being fired.”

More at source: San Diego Times

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One of Sydney's largest cleaning companies, BIC Cleaning Services, has been accused of systematically underpaying its cleaners by almost half a million dollars.

BIC, which has a 35 per cent market share of the cleaning contracts in Sydney's CBD, has been taken to the Federal Circuit court by the cleaners' union, United Voice, with claims of underpayments and breaches of the Fair Work Act.

The union said it had identified underpayments of about $450,000.

7.30 has spoken with three cleaners on student visas who all said they had been underpaid.

United Voice said international students. 

More At source: ABC

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A San Francisco chapter of Service Employees International Union has launched a holiday drive to take toys and clothing to the children of farm workers in Mexico, according to union officials.

Leadership of SEIU Local 87, which is primarily comprised of janitorial workers in San Francisco, announced the drive on Sunday.

The effort is focused on supporting the families of agricultural workers in the town of San Quintin in Baja California.

Those workers in Mexico have been “violently repressed” while trying to orchestrate strikes and other worker actions, according to the union.

Union members will also be traveling to Tijuana in Mexico to host a luncheon in support of these workers. They are trying to raise another $3,000 before Saturday to pay for the trip, union officials said.

More at source: SF Appeal

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Back when she was in her 20s, Hazel Ingram was once told that she was “too skinny” for a cleaning job.

A man at a hiring agency thought a slight woman like Ms. Ingram wouldn’t be able to handle the lifting involved. His colleague disagreed, saying his hardworking mother-in-law was Ms. Ingram’s size.

She got the job.

Ms. Ingram, now 92 years old, has spent the roughly 65 years since then as a cleaner, 60 or so of them at the same Madison Avenue building. She is “by far” the oldest active worker in 32BJ S.E.I.U., the 145,000-member, multistate union representing cleaners, a union spokeswoman said.

And Ms. Ingram, who is employed by real estate and management firm Steinberg & Pokoik, said she has no plans to retire—not because she needs the job but because she loves the work.

More at source: WSJ

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December 03, 2015 // Franchising.com // Considering Franchising? Take note, Stratus Building Solutions looking to expand from 25 offices into another 42 Major US Cities by 2021. If you have been considering owning your own business but find the territory availability or work schedule of other franchisees too impacted or demanding, you may want to consider a Master Franchise with Stratus Building Solutions.

Since the acquisition of the Stratus Building Solutions corporate office in February 2015 by three partners who connected through ownership of their own Stratus Master Franchises, the new company has had many great accomplishments to secure the growth opportunities for their existing masters and now has announced they have set their sights on expansion across the country.

Stratus Building Solution’s Master model allows its franchisees to operate as regional franchisors, or area developers, selling and supporting their own unit franchisees within an owned exclusive territory. The average territory size determined by population consists of around 3 million people. With currently 25 existing Master Franchise Operators in metropolitans across the country in 18 states and supporting 1,400 unit franchisees, the new ownership has begun an extremely proactive approach in recent months to bring on more Master Franchisees in a minimum of 42 more US cities by 2021.

Stratus Building Solutions is focusing expansion efforts on the largest remaining available metropolitan territories across the United States, including Atlanta, Dallas / Ft. Worth, Chicago, New Orleans, Detroit, Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Miami, Las Vegas and Raleigh. “We currently have a nationwide presence in the commercial cleaning and janitorial franchise industry, however expanding into remaining key cities will bring our brand awareness to a whole new competitive level to reach consumers and new unit franchisees,” states Stratus Corporate CEO, Afshin Cangarlu.

In April of this year, Stratus Building Solutions corporate headquarters launched two new main websites targeting new janitorial service clients and new franchisees, both Master and Unit. Additionally, each of the existing 25 Master Franchises were provided with their own customer and Unit Franchise websites specifically designed for their geo-targeted markets.

The extensive franchise recruiting website seeks to educate potential franchise owners with the opportunity and requirements of the company’s multi-level business options. The company’s ideal candidate for the Master Franchise level has experience in executive level management, sales and marketing and $250,000 in liquid assets.

Stratus Building Solutions nationwide sales have already shown a steady improvement, increasing 7% since the acquisition. Optimism has run rampant since February as well amongst the existing Masters, and with the new proactive recruiting process now in place, the company is set to launch into a strong 2016.

About Stratus Building Solutions

Stratus Building Solutions is a nationwide franchise company in the commercial cleaning industry, founded in 2006 and headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. Stratus was developed to provide a superior, environmentally friendly commercial cleaning experience driven by dedicated, entrepreneurial, small business owners and regional master franchise offices nationwide. Stratus has over 1,400 unit franchisees in 25 major cities across the United States. Stratus is setting new standards in the building services and maintenance franchise industry by being the first to offer sustainable Green Cleaning janitorial with their own proprietary Stratus Green Clean products and green consulting services. For more information, please visit www.stratusbuildingsolutions.com. 

SOURCE Stratus Building Solutions

Media Contact:

Rachel Frazier
Marketing Coordinator
888-981-1555

A Hillsboro janitorial company has agreed to pay nearly $200,000 in back wages to 46 employees who worked on taxpayer-funded projects in Oregon, state labor officials announced Wednesday.
 
The workers have received about $161,000 so far and are due to receive another $32,000 by the end of the month after the state deposits final wage payments collected from their employer,

More at source: Oregon Live

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A Hillsboro, Ore., janitorial business failed to pay employees nearly $200,000 for work on five construction projects at public institutions since 2011, including the University of Oregon’s recent soccer and lacrosse field expansion, and the new state psychiatric hospital in Junction City, state labor officials said Wednesday.

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries said it has collected $160,000 in wages owed by Cornerstone Janitorial Services, compensating 58 workers. BOLI collected the funds directly from Cornerstone in multiple payments over the last year, spokesman Charlie Burr said. The state then distributed money to the employees it determined were underpaid.

The agency collected the final payment — $31,700 — from Cornerstone last week, Burr said. BOLI expects to distribute the payment to 21 employees by the end of the month, raising the total to about $192,000.

“A fair amount of work was done in the last year to collect wages that were owed,” Burr said.

Cornerstone, owned by Sang In Nam, works with building contractors, doing site maintenance and cleanup at large construction sites.

A majority of the unpaid wages — $121,485.63 — was owed to 22 Cornerstone employees who worked on the UO athletic department’s Casanova Center expansion and rebuild of the women’s soccer and lacrosse complex, which ran from 2011 to 2013. Both projects are at the Autzen Stadium complex.

A woman who answered the phone number listed for Cornerstone on Wednesday said Nam was unavailable to comment, then hung up.

Eleven Cornerstone employees were owed $10,932.10 for work on the state psychiatric hospital in Junction City, which opened in March.

BOLI also secured unpaid wages from Cornerstone on a Salem hospital project, an underground parking garage at Portland Community College and a high school renovation in Stayton, southeast of Salem.

More at source: Columbian

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Rural businesses in need of a helping hand got some financial assistance recently from the federal government.

United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development State Director Janelle Gustafson toured Western Montana last week to bestow several grants to business. Gustafson stopped by Kalispell on Nov. 3 to award Laura Blankenship with a $7,950 grant for her company, Heaven Scent Solutions. The Whitefish-based cleaning products entrepreneur now has a store in Kalispell, and with the help of a new grant, is approaching a distribution deal and planning to hire six new employees.

More at source: Daily Interlake

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