Los Angeles Valley College perpetuated wage theft against students on Julie Su's watch

Dan Watanabe served as director for multiple grants at Los Angeles Valley College including the Entertainment Industry Training Collaborative (EITC), a Responsive Training Fund of the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office; IDEAS (Institute for Development of Entertainment Arts and Studies), a Responsive Training Fund Regional Center; and "Deputy Sector Navigator" for ICT and Digital Media.

Watanabe also perpetuated wage theft against low-income students at Los Angeles Valley College for a period of at least three years ranging from 2013 – 2016.

May 2, 2023 'Erika Endrijonas faces new questions in LACCD fraud' hit the wire, and published two accreditation complaints by Valley College students.

Student 1's complaint included violation of labor laws;

"College has allowed Media Arts Department Grant Director to submit falsified resumes to the LACCD Personnel Commission, hire students without college approval, turn-in time sheets to payroll late or not at all. LAVC pay-roll office has brought their own complaints to the CTE Dean both past and present without result. This situation has been on-going for three years."

Erika Endrijonas and the Accreditation Commission of Junior and Community College responded with a contradictory reply;

"An unfortunate miscommunication caused the confusion in your recent hiring. That has been resolved at the Grant Director's level, and the college will adhere to the Personnel Commission going forward."

Facebook Messages, Emails from Grant Director Dan Watanabe, a Labor Complaint and Emails with and referring to other students, in one instance dating back to 2013 show it was also a blatant lie.

In May 2016, Student 1 filed a complaint with the California Labor Commissioner. Prior to filing this complaint, Student 1 emailed Dan Watanabe for two months for updated status about delinquent pay as well as on behalf of two other students that had not been paid.

In response Dan Watanabe acknowledged he he had not finished his paperwork as late as a month after the 2016 LA Hi-Tech Event that had happened in March. He also emailed Student 1 asking Student 1 to falsify the resume Watanabe would be submitting for Student 1 to the Los Angeles Community College District and Personnel Commission. Watanabe also claimed Los Angeles Valley College Payroll Office had requested this falsification – which another email shows was also not true.

Student 1 also emailed another college employee, who was a material witness to Student 1's employment situation, only to be brushed off.

This was not the first time that Los Angeles Valley College's Media Arts Department had specifically defrauded Student 1. In 2013, Student 1 had worked for the college, but according to a string of Facebook Messages with Dan Watanabe first did not receive a check. When Student 1 finally did receive a paycheck it bounced over-drafting Student 1's checking account by a few hundred dollars. This also occurred only a few days before Christmas 2013.

In his replies, Watanabe also mentioned two other workers for him submitted affidavits that they had not been paid, bringing the total too a documented three employees unpaid in 2013.

After the Accreditation Complaint was closed Dan Watanabe sent out a mass email to students workers informing them that he would have to start collecting signed time-sheets for the 2016 - 2017 school year.

Start?

California Law requires that employers maintain Time-Keeping Records.

Watanabe not being fired for this gross violation of labor law spanning several years is also unfortunately not surprising given the culture at the LACCD. Not only did Student 1 not receive a paycheck in 2016 at the time the Accreditation Complaint was closed, Student 1's paycheck would not arrive until August 2016 – for work completed in March 2016. In an email from October 2016, Kevin Jeter (legal counsel to the LACCD) rejected paying the waiting time penalty. Apparently when crafting laws and penalties, the State of California exempted itself from obeying their own laws.

Then there is the matter of culture.

In an interview on The Valley College Connection Podcast, John Kawaii – a professor in Mathematics – stated he encourages students to stay in school longer than they needed too so they could "work for free," a point even his guest pushed back on.

Unpaid internships as free labor may be a common practice – it's also highly illegal.

Court's use the "primary beneficiary" standard regarding unpaid internships, in which the intern NOT a for profit company must be the primary beneficiary. This involves a 7 pronged test of which Kawaii's comments fail several standards;

2. The extent to which the internship provides training that would be similar to that which would be given in an educational environment, including the clinical and other hands-on training provided by educational institutions.

6. The extent to which the intern’s work complements, rather than displaces, the work of paid employees while providing significant educational benefits to the intern.

7. The extent to which the intern and the employer understand that the internship is conducted without entitlement to a paid job at the conclusion of the internship.

Those also aren't suggestions, they are the official policy of the U.S. Department of Labor.

While students can stay in school to obtain an internship, internships are explicitly prohibited as being a “work for free” situation. The seven pronged test for internships explicitly makes it clear that unpaid internships should not replace paid labor and employment should not be dangled in front of interns as a potential incentive.

Ultimately it appears that despite multiple students being defrauded during a three year period – nobody was held accountable for this fraud. Dan Watanabe continued to serve as a Grant Director until 2018 – when renewal of the Deputy Sector Navigator Grant was denied by the State of California.

On the other hand 'L.A. City College Presidential Hopeful Fostered Retaliation Culture As LAVC President' | May 8, 2023 | documents that after financially exploiting students and defrauding them academically, students were retaliated against for protesting against the schools criminal activities.