Chipotle Employees File Lawsuit Alleging Restaurant Doesn’t Pay Them

danjoseph | August 30, 2016
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Nearly 10,000 current and former employees of Chipotle are suing the Mexican-themed fast food restaurant for alleging that they were not paid for their work. 

While the restaurant denies any wrongdoing, lawyers for the plaintiffs allege that they have found instances of “wage theft” in every state. 

The lawsuit was initiated by former Chipotle employee Leah Turner, who claims that she was told by her superiors to work "off the clock" so that her Chipotle store in Colorado could meet its budget goals. Additionally, she claims that she was kept after work for meetings despite being told to clock out.

"Behind the scenes, [Chipotle] is not always what it seems," said another plaintiff, Briana Alexander, who worked at a Chipotle in Miami, Fla. ”I can say I have worked off the clock.”

Alexander’s claims about being forced to work off the clock are almost identical to those made by Turner.

 

The lawsuit is just the latest in a string of PR disasters that have plagued the chain in recent months.

In December of last year, stores in several states were forced to close after an outbreak of food poisoning caused by E. coli made dozens of customers sick. 

More recently, one of the company's chief executives was arrested for buying cocaine.

Perhaps this recent bad publicity is why Chipotle has been surpassed by Moe’s Southwest Grill as America’s most popular Mexican chain restaurant. 

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