Chipotle workers sue, claiming labor-law violations

DENVER – The Denver-based Chipotle fast-casual Mexican restaurant chain is facing a lawsuit in Colorado filed by workers who claim they were forced to work without pay to help the corporation meet its budget.

Thirteen employees from five states – including three from Colorado who worked at locations in Aurora, Castle Rock and Parker – either joined the lawsuit against Denver-based Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) or filed declarations in support of it, according to Denver-based law firm Bachus & Schanker.

The law firm filed a motion Feb. 2 in U.S. District Court in Colorado to join the “collective-action” lawsuit, which originated last fall in Minnesota and alleges that the restaurant chain violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, according to court documents emailed to BizWest by labor-law attorney Karen O’Connor, who is serving as lead counsel for Bachus & Schanker in the case.

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The plaintiffs – from Colorado, Minnesota, California, Arizona and New Jersey – allege that Chipotle required employees to work off the clock to meet corporate labor budgets, and that the company has an unwritten policy to not pay its hourly employees for all time worked and to encourage general managers to require off-the-clock work, according to the documents. The plaintiffs and their supporters claim general managers were rewarded if they met payroll budgets and were threatened with discipline if they didn’t. To keep labor costs down, the complaint alleges, employees were required to punch out before they finished working, resulting in nonpayment of regular wages or overtime wages.

In an email to BizWest on Thursday afternoon, Chipotle communications director Chris Arnold wrote that, “as a matter of policy, we don’t speak to pending legal actions, so I can’t speak to the specific nature of this lawsuit. Generally speaking, all of our employment practices are compliant with federal and state laws.”

In the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado, Boulder, Fort Collins, Longmont and Loveland each have two Chipotle locations, and Greeley, Lafayette and Louisville each have one.