DENVER -- Close to 10,000 current and former Chipotle workers have joined a Colorado woman’s class-action lawsuit alleging employees were forced to work off the clock without pay.
Leah Turner, a former manager at a Parker, Colorado Chipotle restaurant, initially filed an individual federal lawsuit in March 2013, but it was dismissed. Her attorneys filed the class-action suit in September 2014.
Turner, who was an hourly, non-exempt employee at the store from March 2010 to May 2011, claims she was forced to clock out after working 40 hours in a week, but was required to continue working and attending after-hours meetings without pay.
The suit claimed workers’ overtime also was moved to subsequent weeks but paid out as straight wages so general managers could maintain a healthy balance between payroll and overhead.
It says that the pressure on managers to keep employee payroll costs down weighed into promotions within individual stores and possibly the company.
Denver-based attorney Andrew Quisenberry, who is among the lawyers representing clients in the case, told Colorado Public Radio that the number of people who have joined the suit means the accusations levied were happening nationwide.
Chipotle, which operates out of Denver, has maintained throughout the years there is no merit to the suit. But it is the latest black eye for the company, which has been plagued with negative press in the past year.
An E. coli outbreak last year sickened dozens of people in several states, and a former employee won a lawsuit earlier this year after a judge determined she was discriminated against for being pregnant.
The case is now entering its discovery phase.
