A placement agency does not get to turn caregivers into fake businesses and then keep control of the schedule. On April 23, 2026, the Labor Commissioner cited Hart Placement Agency Inc. of Canoga Park, and its principals Annie Ghaw and Hartmann Ghaw, $4,423,450 for willfully misclassifying 144 caregivers who worked in private homes across Los Angeles County. $4,266,450 of that citation is payable to the workers. That is DIR News Release 2026-34. The citation is on appeal. A hearing date is pending. The numbers below are the Labor Commissioner’s, not a court judgment.
What the Law Says
DIR’s Bureau of Field Enforcement investigated work from October 2022 through December 2024. Hart Placement required caregivers to obtain business licenses and file fictitious business name statements as part of a scheme to call them independent contractors. DIR found the agency still controlled schedules, duties, and compensation, and required independent-contractor agreements without giving workers copies. Investigators also found caregivers were instructed to falsify timesheets or sign documents to conceal shifts exceeding 12 or 24 hours, and that they did not receive paystubs or paid sick leave. Citations and Notices to Discontinue Labor Law Violations issued on October 1, 2025. The investigation started in December 2024 after a referral from the Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California.
Labor Code section 2775 is the ABC test. A person paid for labor is an employee unless the hiring entity proves all three: (A) the person is free from the hiring entity’s control, in the contract and in fact; (B) the work is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; (C) the person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade of the same kind. Making someone pull a city license does not satisfy C. Controlling the schedule fails A. Placing caregivers is the usual course of a placement agency’s business, which is the B problem.
Labor Code section 226.8 makes willful misclassification unlawful. “Willful” means voluntarily and knowingly misclassifying. Civil penalties are $5,000 to $15,000 per violation, and $10,000 to $25,000 per violation if there is a pattern or practice, on top of unpaid wages and other fines. Section 226.8 also bars charging a misclassified worker fees or deductions — including for government licenses — that would have been illegal if the person had been treated as an employee.
Once the worker is an employee, the rest of the Labor Code applies. Section 226 requires an accurate itemized wage statement at each payment. Section 246 requires paid sick leave and written notice of available sick leave. Section 510 requires overtime. Section 1194 lets a worker recover unpaid minimum wage and overtime. DIR determined Hart Placement willfully misclassified caregivers and also failed to provide accurate wage statements and required paid sick leave notices. I am not inventing a per-worker overtime figure. DIR did not publish one.
How to Fight Back, Step by Step
- Keep the paper they made you sign: independent-contractor agreement, fictitious business name, business license receipt, and any demand that you open a bank account under a DBA. DIR quoted a caregiver who had to do exactly that just to work.
- Reconstruct the real job. Who set the client, the hours, the rate, and the duties? Who told you to alter a timesheet for a 12-hour or 24-hour shift? Write dates, client addresses if you have them, and what you were paid. Hours the agency controlled are hours worked.
- Compare what you received to what an employee is owed: overtime after eight hours in a day, meal and rest premiums, paid sick leave, and a wage statement with hours, rates, and the employer’s legal name. No stub is itself a violation of section 226.
- File a wage claim with the Labor Commissioner at dir.ca.gov/dlse/HowToFileWageClaim.htm, or call 1-833-LCO-INFO (833-526-4636). Name Hart Placement Agency Inc., Annie Ghaw, and Hartmann Ghaw if those are the names on your paperwork. If you were one of the 144 and got no citation notice, say so. The citation is appealed; a claim still puts you on the record.
- Do not let a new “contractor” agreement talk you out of filing. A signature on an IC form does not beat the ABC test. Retaliation for filing is illegal. The Labor Commissioner does not ask immigration status.
Common Questions
They made me get a business license. Doesn’t that make me a contractor?
No. DIR’s Hart Placement release describes that exact move as part of a misclassification scheme. Section 2775 still requires the hiring entity to prove A, B, and C. A license you were ordered to buy is evidence of control, not independence. Section 226.8 separately prohibits charging a willfully misclassified worker for government licenses.
The company appealed. Should I wait for the hearing?
Waiting is how claims age out. DIR says employers have 15 business days after service to appeal a citation, and Hart Placement did appeal. That fight is between the agency and the Labor Commissioner. Your own wage claim is a separate filing. File it. If you already received a BOFE notice as one of the 144, call 833-526-4636 and ask where that citation stands. Do not assume the appeal means the wages disappeared.
Get the free Wage Theft Recovery Kit at wagetheftkit.com — demand-letter templates, hours worksheets, and DLSE filing checklists. The same kit is at justiceprompt.com. Educational use only — not legal advice.
California Wage Theft Recovery System 
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