With the motto “Food With Integrity,” Chipotle Mexican Grill’s brand is based on ethical fast food.
Hundreds of workers in nine lawsuits in six states allege the company’s moral high-ground on pork, beef and chicken doesn’t extend to its cooks, cashiers and managers.
The lawsuits say Denver-based Chipotle cheated employees out of pay by making them work off the clock or misclassifying them to avoid paying overtime.
One in Colorado alleges hourly employees were automatically clocked out even though they were still working. The largest lawsuit underway alleges managers-in-training known as “apprentices” are glorified burrito rollers with minimal managerial duties and should be entitled to overtime pay.
A Chipotle spokesman dismissed the lawsuits as “allegations.”
“Our labor practices are fully compliant with applicable labor laws,” Chris Arnold wrote in an email, “In fact, we have built a culture that creates unprecedented opportunity for our employees.”
Unfair payment practices?
Brittany Swa is one of about 650 plaintiffs suing Chipotle for allegedly unfair labor practices.
She worked at Centennial-area Chipotle stores for almost three years, moving up from crew member to apprentice and general manager. Software calculated how many employees to schedule every day to be profitable, she said, with a if she hit the numbers.
“The goal is to obviously have a little less people so you’re making a little bit more profit in your store,” Swa said.
Swa and other Chipotle apprentices allege they mostly worked the same tasks as hourly workers did: grilling chicken, mixing guacamole, rolling burritos and ringing up orders. According to Chipotle’s website, apprentices make almost twice as much as kitchen and service managers, who are paid hourly. Apprentices are classified as exempt employees and not entitled to overtime pay. They worked up to 60 hours a week, but were not paid for time over 40 hours as a matter of corporate policy, the lawsuits argue.
Chipotle doesn’t have independent franchises.
Swa paid a personal cost for the long hours, she said. She constantly left her infant son with her mom and missed his first steps, first words and even his first solid food.
“I was always getting texts and pictures from my mom, like, ‘Look what he did!’” Swa said.
Separate cases in Colorado and Minnesota allege the computer timekeeping system clocked workers out after 40 hours, even though they had to clean up or attend meetings. They say managers received bonuses by keeping costs low.
“If you force people to work off the clock, you’re going to have to pay them anyway,” plaintiffs lawyer Karen O’Connor said.
Chipotle denied the allegations and argues the company pays for off-duty meals and breaks, which is above what the law requires.
Chipotle wants the Colorado lawsuit dismissed as a duplicative case.
Yet, inspectors have found illegal practices similar to plaintiffs’ allegations at stores across the U.S., Department of Labor records show. In 2012, the computer at a Cincinnati store automatically clocked out a worker, even though she was still cleaning the store. But because she was owed was less than $20, investigators found, her claim was dismissed.
In 2013, a manager at Miami-area store deleted hours from the computer when workers stayed late cleaning the store, but federal investigators found the deleted time was “not substantial.”
Labor lawsuits on the rise
None of Chipotle’s 74 Colorado stores have ever been investigated by the federal Department of Labor, according to an I-News analysis.
As of last year, Chipotle had about 53,090 employees and 1,783 restaurants in the U.S. and abroad.
Nationwide, since 2006 federal labor authorities have investigated 24 Chipotle locations and recovered a $19,440 in unpaid wages for 36 employees, government data show.
Loose government enforcement is one reason private attorneys are heralding cases of unpaid wages, said labor law enforcement expert, Catherine Ruckelshaus of the National Employment Law Project.
“The private bar stepped in to take up that slack,” Ruckelshaus said.
Employers in other industries are facing an increase in employee lawsuits. Nationally, lawsuits for unpaid wages have increased 137 percent since 2004, from 3,426 to 8,126 in 2014, according to federal judicial caseload statistics.
The trend extends to Colorado, too. The federal district court here saw 96 lawsuits filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act in 2014, up from 22 cases in 2004, according to filings listed on federal courts’ Public Access to Court Electronic Records or PACER database.
Richard Alfred of law firm Seyfarth Shaw, which defends such cases, calls the trend an “epidemic” but doesn’t agree it’s caused by lax enforcement. The Fair Labor Standards Act, which governs minimum wage and overtime payment, is now 77 years-old and hasn’t kept up with the current economy, he said. That mismatch creates litigation opportunities for plaintiffs, who are better informed of their rights than before, and lawyers looking for more clients, he said.
“There are a lot of these lawsuits that are brought are ‘gotcha’ lawsuits that are technical violations,” Alfred said.
In Colorado, once workers have filed lawsuits in federal court, they have almost always been able to resolve their complaints without going to trial, according to an I-News analysis of lawsuits filed and terminated in the past three years.
Those records show that 32 percent of case dockets mentioned settlement had been reached and 48 percent were dismissed by a plaintiff alone or jointly with the defendant, an indication that the parties may have resolved the dispute out of court. The court ruled in favor of the worker’s employer in only three percent of cases and in favor of workers in only three percent, the I-News analysis found.
Workers can recoup attorney’s fees as part of a settlement, but in the Colorado cases each party was often responsible for their own costs, which can reach thousands of dollars.
Former Chipotle employee Swa liked working at Chipotle, but thinks the company should treat its store employees better by increasing time for employee training and promoting work-life balance.
“Definitely an area of opportunity for them would be integrity with their employees,” Swa said.