Workers Hit McDonald’s With Wage Theft Suits

In three California lawsuits, McDonald’s workers say that the company and its franchise owners did not pay them for all time worked, failed to pay correct overtime amounts, altered pay records and deprived them of meal and rest breaks. In two Michigan suits, plaintiffs alleged that the company and two Detroit-area franchisees regularly forced workers to show up for work at a specific time but then to wait without pay until customers show up.

The New York lawsuit seeks redress for McDonald’s failures to reimburse workers for the time and cost of cleaning their uniforms.

In an unattributed press release from BerlinRosen, Catherine Ruckelshaus, general counsel at the National Employment Law Project said:

Hidden from view among salaried workers, wage theft is a scourge that eats away at the livelihoods of already-underpaid hourly workers. As these cases show, it’s a persistent problem in too many low-wage industries like fast food, which is why the US Department of Labor has named restaurants and fast food as one of its priority industries for strategic enforcement. McDonald’s requires its workers to work off-the-clock, show up for work without consistent shifts, and deducts expenses from their already-meager pay, chiseling wages while earning billions in profits. These violations can run into the millions of dollars quite quickly, and as one of the largest low-wage employers in the country, McDonalds should be setting standards, not undermining them.

Fast-food workers have been demonstrating against McDonald’s and other fast-food restaurants, seeking a wage increase to $15 an hour. According to The New York Times, the push for a $15-an-hour wage is being financed largely by the Service Employees International Union.