Sacramento County DA targets Rocklin contractor with historic wage theft charges
In a historic move to safeguard workers’ rights, Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho announced this week the formation of a new Workers’ Protection Unit and the first-ever felony criminal wage theft charges filed in Sacramento County.
The charges stem from a complaint filed by the Nor Cal Carpenters Union against Rocklin-based contractor ProFrame, which the DA alleges underpaid workers on a public affordable housing project in Oak Park by more than 50%. The new complex is on Broadway, just one block east of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The news conference, where county supervisors, union leaders, laborers and building industry executives stood with Ho, was held symbolically at the Sacramento International Airport — an example, DA Ho emphasized, of a site upholding labor standards and worker protections.
“Wage theft often targets the most vulnerable among us — among us, from immigrants to day laborers to those that are trying to hang on every day,” Ho said. “If you steal from a worker’s wage, you are stealing their rent, their groceries and their dignity. But today is a new day in Sacramento, because today those individuals will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
ProFrame did not return a phone message that The Bee left at the company’s Rocklin office.
According to Ho, the company hired 15 mostly undocumented workers for a public works construction site but only compensated them for half of the hours they worked—resulting in more than $50,000 in stolen wages. When workers complained, Ho said, they were fired. The DA’s office executed a search warrant last week and continues investigating the company, with an arraignment expected in early June.
Ho credited the Nor Cal Carpenters Union and the Sacramento Sierra Building Trades for their collaboration and labor investigations, which initially uncovered the violations.
The Workers’ Protection Unit will not only prosecute wage theft but will also investigate unsafe labor conditions across Sacramento County, Ho said.
“We stand here wearing vests and hard hats,” Ho said, with construction workers surrounding him. “We stand here arm-in-arm. We stand here with signs and banners to send a message that, in Sacramento, without a doubt, we will make sure that you are held fully accountable under the law for endangering workers and stealing from them.”
Labor chief: ‘This is a crime scene of production’
Jay Bradshaw, the executive officer of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union, hailed the charges as a landmark moment in labor justice and a model for other jurisdictions in California.
“Every single violation out there is a crime scene,” he said.
In the court case, Bradshaw said, the carpenters union alleges that ProFrame is an example of a contractor whose business model is based on exploitation, and on the Broadway project, they did so while being paid public funds.
“That means the taxpayer is being exploited as well,” he said.
Bradshaw highlighted the union’s work in exposing wage theft, often involving nighttime investigations, outreach to migrant workers in campgrounds and hotels, and extensive documentation efforts.
The union sees what these workers do for a living, not their status, Bradshaw said, and it is also working with Ho to ensure that any general contractors and developer who takes public money fulfills its duty to police subcontractors.
If they don’t, Bradshaw said, they are complicit.
Supervisor Kennedy: Wage theft no different than robbery
Sacramento County Supervisor Patrick Kennedy, long an advocate for labor rights, also praised the action, calling it “a great day for workers not only in Sacramento, but across the state.”
“When you steal from workers, you steal from the community,” Kennedy said. “ When you steal as a company, you are just the same as the thief that goes into a bank with a mask over his face.”
Kennedy said that this new legal mechanism—led by a district attorney willing to prioritize wage theft prosecutions—represents a sea change for workers’ rights enforcement. Kennedy and Ho said they held the news conference at Sacramento International Airport because it was a site where contractors were doing the right thing by their workers.
With multiple new wage theft cases under review—including one referred by the sheet metal workers’ union—the new Workers’ Protection Unit is set to become a central force in labor rights enforcement in Northern California, Kennedy said. According to Ho, the unit will vertically investigate and prosecute labor crimes, working hand-in-hand with union compliance officers and affected workers.
“For those who are victims, it’s OK to reach out,” Ho said “For those who are victims, it’s OK to speak up and then to the employers, to the abusers. The message is, we will hold you accountable.”
If workers have a complaint, they should start by contacting the union, said Shelly Orio, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento County DA’s office, and the union will refer the issue to the district attorney.
This story was originally published May 15, 2025 at 4:42 PM.
