The agreement, which awaits a final City Council vote on Oct. 20, would return every dollar of back wages the city says 128 hotel employees were owed, plus interest, under Oakland’s voter-approved hotel minimum wage.
By Staff Reporter
Oakland has secured a $600,000 settlement from the former owners of the Radisson hotel near Oakland International Airport, resolving one of the largest wage-theft cases the city has ever brought and setting the stage for payments to 128 former hotel workers who were underpaid more than six years ago.
The City Council authorized the settlement in closed session on Oct. 8, according to a report of final action released by the Oakland City Attorney’s office. The council is scheduled to give the agreement final approval at its regular meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
What the settlement provides
The case, City of Oakland v. Oakland Alameda Hotels LLC, Oakland Hotels LLC and Nupenbhai D. Patel, was filed in Alameda County Superior Court in 2024. Under the terms described in the city attorney’s report, Mr. Patel, whom The Oaklandside identified as the majority shareholder, agreed to pay $511,685 to the 128 former employees. That sum represents $404,491 in restitution, the full amount of back wages the city determined was owed, and $107,194 in interest. The city will receive an additional $88,315 for its attorneys’ fees.
The motion to authorize the settlement was made by Councilmember Noel Gallo and seconded by Councilmember Zac Unger, and passed with six votes, according to the report.
Mr. Patel did not respond to an interview request from The Oaklandside, which first reported the settlement. The settlement is a compromise of disputed claims, and the report does not indicate that the defendants admitted liability.
“We appreciate the defendants’ willingness to settle,” Nora Cassidy, a worker protection attorney in the city attorney’s office, told The Oaklandside. “We’re thrilled the settlement agreement will result in workers getting every penny of the wages they earned back into their pockets.”
A case years in the making
The dispute began when employees of the Radisson, then operating at 8400 Edes Avenue, filed claims with the city’s Department of Workplace and Employment Standards alleging violations of Oakland’s Hotel Minimum Wage Ordinance. That ordinance, adopted by Oakland voters as Measure Z in 2018, set a higher wage floor for hotel workers than the citywide minimum, along with protections for housekeepers.
After an investigation, the department concluded in 2023 that the hotel had failed to pay 128 workers the correct minimum wage from July 2019 through April 2020, a period that ended just as the pandemic emptied hotels across the Bay Area. It issued a notice of determination finding that the hotel owed $404,491 in back wages. When the money was not paid, the city attorney’s office sued.
The Oaklandside has reported that the original restitution demand was the largest the city had ever made in a wage case, and ABC7 News reported at the time that it involved both the largest dollar amount and the greatest number of workers in a single determination by the city’s labor standards office.
The property itself has changed hands since. The Radisson was placed in a court-ordered receivership in 2025 after it failed to repay a loan, according to The Oaklandside, citing the East Bay Times, and last month an affiliate of Cardera Health bought the property from Berkadia Hotels & Hospitality Group for $15.5 million. Cardera Health is not a party to the case.
Getting money to workers
When former employees will be paid is not yet clear. Many of the affected workers left the hotel years ago, and some may have left the area.
Laurel Moeslein, the labor standards department’s deputy director, told The Oaklandside that the city has contacted Fair Labor Oakland, a coalition of groups that support low-wage workers, and will work with the coalition and the nonprofit East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy to reach employees who may be eligible for restitution.
Chuck Baker, the department’s interim director, called the outcome a “huge milestone” for the city. “The city is doing this on behalf of workers to recoup city resources,” he told the publication.
Advocates used the moment to press a budget argument. Saabir Lockett, deputy director of civic engagement at the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, told The Oaklandside that the result shows why the labor standards department needs stable funding. “Every budget cycle the city has to reallocate funding, and this is one of the places we know is necessary based on this win we just received,” he said.
Why it matters beyond Oakland
Oakland is one of a handful of California cities that run their own labor enforcement offices rather than relying solely on the state labor commissioner, whose wage claims can take years to resolve. Local enforcement has become a quiet test of whether cities can make their own minimum wage laws stick, particularly in hospitality, where shifts are irregular, turnover is high and many workers are immigrants who may hesitate to complain.
The case also illustrates how slowly that enforcement can move. The underlying violations ended in April 2020; the city’s determination came three years later; the lawsuit followed in 2024; and the settlement arrives in the autumn of 2026, after the hotel’s ownership changed through receivership and sale. For low-wage workers, a six-year wait for back pay is a long time, and some may never be found.
The Oct. 20 council agenda is a full one. Members are also scheduled to consider up to $50 million in Measure U and other funds for affordable housing construction, acquisition and rehabilitation, along with a companion proposal that would let certain housing trust funds pay for rental subsidies, according to council records.
Workers who believe they have been underpaid in Oakland can file a complaint with the city’s Department of Workplace and Employment Standards.
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