Fenox Venture Capital must shell out $331K to unpaid workers
San Jose-based Fenox Venture Capital wrongfully labeled 56 workers as interns and failed to pay them, the Department of Labor announced Monday.
Fenox must pay $331,269 in back wages and damages, according to a Department of Labor news release. The workers in question performed high-level jobs, including screening startups for potential investment, sending reports to investors in Japan, and recruiting potential staff, the investigation found. Though the workers displaced regular employees and staffed the majority of the firm’s investment team, they were treated as interns and not paid for their work, according to the release.
“If, in fact, you are an employee, you must be paid properly,” Susan Blanco, director for the Wage and Hour Division in San Francisco, wrote in a statement. “Employers cannot simply label an employee an ‘intern’ and not pay them anything.”...MORE
