A group of current and former employees of the Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant chain appear to be making good progress in a lawsuit seeking to recover unpaid wages for off-the-clock work. The lawsuit is pending in the federal court in Colorado. It is a “collective action” brought on behalf of all current and former Chipotle workers employed during the past three years and paid an hourly wage. Because the lawsuit seeks nationwide relief, current and former Chipotle employees from throughout the United States can join the lawsuit.
The case has received some notable media attention. Here is a link to a recent article about the lawsuit in CNN Money: http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/29/news/companies/chipotle-labor-lawsuit/
Here is another link to a recent article about the lawsuit appearing in the Denver Business Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/finance_etc/2014/10/chipotle-sued-for-allegedly-violating-fair-labor.html
Our law firm is not involved in this lawsuit and has no interest in its outcome. However, another very good Pennsylvania lawyer named Adam Levy is among the team of lawyers who is representing the Chipotle workers. Adam is a friend of our law firm, and his phone number is (267) 994-6952. I’m sure he would be happy to talk to any current or former employees who want to learn more about the lawsuit.
I think this is an interesting case. As we’ve previously reported, Judges have issued some recent decisions expressing skepticism of corporations’ attempts to blame workers for working off-the-clock. The best example of this is the Eleventh Circuit’s recent opinion in Bailey Titlemax of Georgia, which can be found at the following link: http://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201411747.pdf