Nearly 50 workers at a Half Moon Bay plant nursery were allegedly stiffed on wages, with roughly two dozen of them going entirely unpaid for up to three straight pay periods during the frantic run-up to Black Friday and Christmas last year. Now San Mateo County is suing both the nursery and the online retailer that contracted with it, arguing the retailer knew workers weren't being paid and kept doing business anyway.
The county filed its civil complaint on August 10 in San Mateo County Superior Court, case number 26-CIV-06206, titled People of the State of California v. Cal Coast Orchids, LLC, et al., according to Coastside Buzz. The lawsuit names Cal Coast Orchids and Mixtiles USA, the parent company of online plant-delivery service EasyPlant, as defendants, and it seeks back wages, damages, and civil penalties, as reported by the San Mateo Daily Journal.
A Joint-Employer Theory Targets the Retailer, Not Just the Nursery
Cal Coast Orchids is accused of failing to pay minimum wage, failing to pay overtime, failing to pay wages on time, failing to provide required meal breaks, and underpaying workers, per the county's complaint, as described by the Daily Journal. But the lawsuit's more novel legal move is aimed at Mixtiles USA: the county alleges the company, operating as EasyPlant, acted as a joint employer of the nearly 50 workers and kept its procurement and packaging contract with Cal Coast Orchids after it knew or reasonably should have known workers weren't being paid on time, according to SFGATE.
Mixtiles USA contracted with Cal Coast Orchids to procure and package plants at the Half Moon Bay facility, and the county contends Mixtiles continued that arrangement despite allegedly knowing workers were going unpaid. San Mateo County Attorney John Nibbelin said employers have a legal duty to pay workers fully and lawfully, and the county has framed the case as part of a broader push to hold businesses accountable for their labor obligations.
Holiday Rush Left Workers Unpaid for Months
The alleged non-payment was worst during the 2025 holiday rush, when roughly two dozen employees worked long overtime hours ahead of Black Friday and Christmas without receiving any pay at all for up to three full pay periods, per the San Mateo County Executive's Office. The county has said the wage theft and labor violations caused major hardship for workers and their families. Cal Coast Orchids operated its Half Moon Bay fulfillment and production center at 2135 South Cabrillo Highway until ceasing operations at the coastal site in December, shortly after that peak holiday period.
None of the named parties — Cal Coast Orchids, Mixtiles USA, or EasyPlant — responded to requests for comment following the county's public announcement of the lawsuit, SFGATE reported. Cal Coast Orchids was founded in 2018 in Los Osos by Bas van Eijk and Alison Glasco as a family-owned commercial grower using Dutch greenhouse techniques, according to ReduSystems, before expanding fulfillment operations up the coast into San Mateo County.
How the Case Reached Court
County officials began investigating Cal Coast Orchids in 2025 after receiving worker complaints, following initial investigative reporting broken by KALW journalist Sebastian Mino-Bucheli, per Coastside Buzz. That reporting fed into a newly empowered local enforcement effort: San Mateo County's Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement launched operational activity in July 2025 to take advantage of California Assembly Bill 594, a 2024 state law that let local public prosecutors independently enforce state Labor Code provisions previously reserved for state regulators, according to KALW.
The county's Board of Supervisors had also amended Chapter 5.158 of the county ordinance code in mid-2025, giving the labor standards office direct administrative power to inspect, cite, and penalize local employers over minimum wage violations. Previously, the county leaned heavily on claims filed through state labor boards or private lawsuits to address such disputes. The unincorporated county's minimum wage, which took effect at $16.50 per hour in April 2023, rose to $17.95 per hour effective January 1, 2026, under its annual inflation-adjusted schedule, per the county executive's office.
What the Lawsuit Could Mean Going Forward
This case represents one of the first major tests of the county's newly formed labor enforcement office. By pursuing both the local grower and the multinational retailer that contracted with it, county prosecutors are invoking joint-employer liability standards meant to prevent parent companies from insulating themselves from labor abuses within their supply chains. Whether Mixtiles USA had explicit notice of the non-payment during the 2025 holiday rush, what assets remain to satisfy any back-pay claims, and how a Superior Court ruling might shape joint-liability enforcement elsewhere in California remain open questions.
Workers and employers with questions about labor requirements can reach the San Mateo County Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement through its confidential multilingual advice hotline at 866-870-7725, by emailing [email protected], or through its online inquiry system.
