The Denver Auditor’s Office reported online staffing firm Instawork has committed more than 20,000 violations of the city’s minimum wage and civil wage theft ordinances. The office in a press release on Aug. 26 said Instawork owes nearly $2.4 million in restitution, penalties and fines. However, the company said the office’s press release misrepresents months of cooperation between itself and the office.

“Instawork and AWS are disappointed with the statements in Denver Labor’s incomplete and non-final administrative determination, which misrepresent months of cooperation between the companies and the City of Denver, including early, in-person engagement to explain the companies’ business models and fulsome responses to multiple requests for information,” Kira Caban, head of strategic communication at Instawork, said in a statement to SIA.

Caban continued, “While we do not comment on active investigations or pending litigation, Instawork and AWS [Advantage Workforce Solutions] prioritize compliance with applicable regulations and are committed to ensuring every person who uses the Instawork platform to find local work receives full and proper worker protections, including payment at hourly rates that meet or exceed the minimum wage.”

Denver Auditor Timothy O’Brien said in a press release that Instawork had numerous opportunities to “do the right thing. … Instead, they withheld information we requested and stopped thousands of employees from receiving their rightful pay and sick leave according to the law.”

The office said it initially began with an investigation of a firm called Advantage Workforce Solutions in May and found the company failed to pay minimum wage and overtime to hundreds of workers. It also routinely denied sick and safe leave to employees. The office said it later found that Advantage Workforce Services was owned by Instawork, which had come under fire from the office separately earlier this year for misclassifying workers as independent contractors.

In addition, the office said Instawork withheld documentation on payroll data in the office’s first investigation that amounted to more than 14,000 shifts representing 1,450 workers.

“Gig workers can still be a company’s employees if they do not have the functional independence of being in business for themselves,” O’Brien said. “In this case, people working frontline jobs — around food, in warehouses or in cleaning services across the city — deserve the wages they are legally entitled to and have earned.”

This activity undercuts fair competition, O’Brien continued.

“The staffing industry has been around for a long time, and its members shouldn’t have to compete against a rival who profits from wage theft,” he said. “The fact that Instawork uses an app doesn’t change the basic principle that these people are employees entitled to legal wages, including overtime and paid sick and safe leave.”

Instawork will have an opportunity to appeal this determination before an independent hearing officer.

Instawork has been contacted for comment.