(Photo by Miriam)

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine’s office is suing Turning Natural Cafe and its owner, Jerri Evans, for failing to pay workers minimum wage, overtime pay, and sick leave as mandated by District law. The Office of the Attorney General filed the complaint in Superior Court on June 29 and announced it on Thursday.

Turning Natural is a juice, smoothie, and health food store that currently has three open locations, one in Maryland and two in the District. Its two District locations are on H Street NE in Capitol Hill and Martin Luther King Jr. Ave in Anacostia. The company is planning to open two more stores, one in Shaw and the other at MGM National Harbor, according to its website.

The complaint was filed on behalf of three Turning Natural employees: Onesha Barnes, Shavon Jackson, and Brandi Jackson (no relation). It alleges that “on information and belief, the denial of minimum wage and overtime is systemic at the company, and multiple former and current employees were and are denied minimum wage and overtime pay.” Any other employee discovered to have been denied wages owed them will be covered under this lawsuit, according to OAG spokesperson Marissa Geller. In addition to back pay, the city is also seeking damages and attorneys fees.

Every Turning Natural store is staffed by five or six employees, per the complaint. Onesha Barnes, the first named complainant, worked at the Capitol Hill store as a shift leader from March through October 2017. During that time, she was paid $11.50 per hour, even after July 1, 2017, when the District’s minimum wage increased to $12.50 per hour (it recently jumped to $13.25). Around August, that Barnes confronted Evans about her wage, but Evans refused to raise it, the complaint states. Barnes says she worked more than 335 hours at Turning Point at a rate lower than the minimum wage.

Shavon Jackson worked at the chain’s Anacostia location as a barista from August 2015 to August 2016. The complaint states that Jackson received a wage of $10.50 per hour throughout her employment, despite the District’s minimum wage increase to $11.50 per hour in July 2016. Shavon Jackson asked Evans if she was eligible for the minimum wage increase, and Evans allegedly told her she would not pay her the higher wage. Shavon Jackson says she was then fired in August.

Brandi Jackson worked at the Anacostia location as a barista from July through September of 2016. She says she was paid $10.50 an hour the entire time of her employment, below the District’s $11.50 per hour minimum wage at the time. “At no point was she paid the District’s lawful minimum wage for the hours worked,” according to the complaint. She was also allegedly never paid overtime. Evans reportedly told Brandi Jackson that she was not required to pay her overtime due to a “small business loophole,” and she also refused to pay her the minimum wage.

None of the complainants received any paid sick leave at any time during their employment with Turning Natural, according to the Office of the Attorney General. D.C. has mandated that employers office paid sick leave since 2008 (it was extended in 2013 to include tipped workers).

The allegations against Turning Natural come in the wake of the District’s passage of a ballot initiative that would gradually increase tipped workers’ wages until they equal the standard District minimum wage (currently, tipped workers are paid $3.89 per hour plus tips. If tips don’t make the worker minimum wage, the employer is obligated to make up the difference).

The Turning Natural workers named in the lawsuit don’t receive a tipped wage, but much of the debate around Initiative 77 was over the prevalence of wage theft and if eliminating the tipped minimum wage would make it less frequent.

DCist reached out to Turning Natural for comment, but did not receive a response.