A man formerly employed by Paul Pierce to build his marijuana business is suing him for unpaid wages amounting in excess of $42,000.
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The Celtics legend had alleged employed one Kenneth Johnson starting from 2016. Pierce hired him to design and build a warehouse for the purpose of growing marijuana. Johnson was promised a sweet monthly wage of $10,000.
Kenneth alleges that Pierce cut his pay to a much more modest $4,000 per month soon after he began work. They claimed they couldn’t pay him his full wages until he had obtained the company’s first harvest. This warehouse was located in Los Angeles, Paul Pierce’s hometown.
Paul Pierce is reportedly being sued by a man Pierce hired to help run his cannabis business, per TMZ
(h/t Yahoo) pic.twitter.com/PnXJhjtc79
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) December 5, 2020
Paul Pierce in legal trouble with former employee over unpaid wages
Johnson alleges that things got worse even after his wages were slashed. Pierce’s company ‘cut corners’, avoiding or delaying payments wherever they could. They also reportedly skimped on necessary expenditure to grow the plants.
This resulted in the plants not being accepted by the company warehouse until late 2018 – more than 2 years after Johnson was initially hired. Even after the first harvest, the company refused to start his full wage program at $10,000 per month.
Johnson left Paul Pierce’s company in November 2019 while it still owed him over $42,000 in unpaid wages – amounting to 7 months of a difference between his promised and actual wages.
Paul Pierce is being sued for back pay, unpaid overtime, missed meal period violations and more. The allegations are quite serious and may result in hefty fines and issuing a public apology to the plaintiff.
Quite a few former NBA players, including Al Harrington, have invested in marijuana following the wave of legalisation that has taken place in different states of the USA over the past decade or so. Paul Pierce did his best to hop onto the bandwagon.
