About 10,000 people have signed a class-action lawsuit against Chipotle. The current and former employees claim that the company worked them “off the clock” without compensating them for the extra time. Apparently, this type of wage theft happened at Chipotle’s across the United States. Per CNN Money… “Chipotle routinely requires hourly-paid restaurant employees to punch out, and then continue working until they are given permission to leave,” according to the class action lawsuit known as Turner v. Chipotle. It’s named after a former Chipotle manager in Colorado, Leah Turner, who claims she had to work without pay and was told to make workers under her do the same in order to meet budget goals. Chipotle denies any wrongdoing and says the case has no merit. The company says it has paid all wages it owes employees. Briana Alexander is one of the nearly 10,000 workers who have joined the lawsuit. She worked at a Chipotle in Miami, Florida for about a year, starting in the fall of 2013. “Behind the scenes, [Chipotle] is not always what it seems,” Alexander told CNNMoney. “I can say I have worked off the clock.” Alexander says she was forced to stay late numerous times at her store. If the workers weren’t done by midnight or 12:30am, they were clocked out but told to keep working until the job was finished, even though they were no longer getting paid. Alexander also claims she worked 12-hour shifts on some days, but was clocked out after her shift time ended even though she actually continued to work on busy days. The problem is Chipotle’s automatic system that workers use to clock out after their shift. Complaints surfaced that the system automatically ends their shifts at 12:30am. But, managers often requests that they stay longer to finish cleaning and prepping for the morning shift. Although managers are required to adjust their timesheets accordingly, most managers do not do that and the workers are stiffed the extra money. Read more…
