The owner and manager of a now-shuttered burrito shop on Belmont Avenue are accused of wage theft in the Fresno City Attorney’s latest prosecution of a local employer for alleged labor violations — cases he previously said his office would be more aggressively pursuing this year.
Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz’s office sued the Biggie Burrito Taqueria, its owner, Claude Leon Patterson, and manager, Joseph Daniel Briseno, in late February in Fresno County Superior Court. Janz’s complaint alleges at least 12 of the restaurant’s workers were paid below the minimum wage, worked overtime without pay and were issued paychecks that “bounced due to insufficient funds.”
“Patterson and Briseno … are personally liable,” for the wage theft violations, Janz says in the complaint…