The owners of the Radisson Hotel on Edes Avenue in Oakland have agreed to pay $600,000 in restitution, interest, and attorney's fees to settle a wage-theft lawsuit the city filed after the hotel failed to pay 128 workers correctly for nearly a year. The settlement still needs final sign-off from the Oakland City Council at its Oct. 20 meeting, though the council already voted in closed session on Oct. 8 to approve ending the case.
According to The Oaklandside, the settlement covers Oakland Alameda Hotels LLC, Oakland Hotels LLC, and majority shareholder Nupenbhai Patel, who did not respond to an interview request. City investigators determined in 2023 that the Radisson had violated Oakland's Hotel Minimum Wage Ordinance by failing to pay workers correct rates from July 2019 through April 2020, a violation the city's Department of Workplace and Employment Standards said resulted in 128 workers being underpaid.
The department originally demanded the hotel pay more than $404,000 in restitution. When the hotel didn't pay, the city attorney filed suit in 2024. That lawsuit, as reported by KTVU, sought the $404,491.43 allegedly owed to workers along with a $1,000 fine and 10 percent interest for each of the 128 employees. The underlying pay standard comes from Measure Z, which requires Oakland hotels to pay workers $15 an hour with health benefits or $20 an hour without them, per the same station's reporting.
A Winding Road to Settlement
The Radisson's financial troubles didn't end with the wage dispute. In 2025, the hotel was placed into court-ordered receivership after it failed to repay a loan, the city's report on the settlement notes. The following September, a Cardera Health affiliate purchased the property from Berkadia Hotels & Hospitality Group for $15.5 million.
Nora Cassidy said the city appreciated the defendants' willingness to settle and was pleased that workers would finally receive their earned wages. Chuck Baker called the case a huge milestone for the city, saying Oakland is seeking to recoup resources on behalf of workers who were shortchanged.
Largest Wage-Theft Case in City History
The city has described the restitution demand as one of Oakland's biggest wage-theft cases in recent history. The Oaklandside previously reported that the original restitution amount was the largest demand the city had ever made, and ABC7 News reported that the determination involved both the largest dollar amount and the greatest number of workers ever included in a single wage-theft finding by the city's labor standards department.
The case echoes other recent disputes over hotel and restaurant wages in the Bay Area. A San Francisco Superior Court judge earlier ruled that a Marriott Hotel had withheld roughly $9 million in service charges owed to food servers, and Oakland separately sought $105,555 in restitution for former staff of the downtown restaurant Hi Felicia, according to the Oaklandside's 2023 coverage.
Broader Push Against Wage Theft
Laurel Moeslein said the department is actively investigating cases affecting workers across the city, including hotel employees and day laborers. The California Labor Commissioner has awarded $18 million to local government offices statewide to investigate and prosecute wage theft and other labor-law violations, according to the Public Rights Project, whose officials say the city's worker protection office has broad authority to investigate, educate, and litigate violations of the California Labor Code.
A Rutgers University lab study estimated that as many as 14 percent of workers may have experienced annual minimum-wage violations across Oakland, San Francisco, Fremont, and surrounding cities between 2014 and 2023, as reported by RV Times. That same study found that Black and Latino workers statewide were more likely than white workers to be illegally denied proper wages.
Saabir Lockett said he was thrilled by the settlement and believes it highlights the importance of funding Oakland's labor standards department. He said the city must reallocate funding each budget cycle and argued the department remains necessary to catch cases like this one. Fair Labor Oakland, a coalition of organizations supporting low-wage workers, will work with the city and the nonprofit East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy to notify former Radisson employees who may be eligible for restitution.
Exactly when former Radisson workers will actually get paid remains unclear, the Oaklandside's reporting notes. Workers who believe they have experienced wage theft or other labor violations can file a complaint with Oakland's Department of Workplace and Employment Standards.
