McDonald’s Case Represents Important Labor Law Test
A recent series of seven lawsuits have been filed by workers of McDonald’s who are claiming wage theft by their employer. The suits represent an important departure from most wage theft cases in the fast food industry in that they are attempting to sue not only the owners of the individual franchises, but also McDonald’s corporate offices.
The suits were filed by workers across three states, California, Michigan and New York, and are seeking class-action certification. If the attempt is successful, the plaintiffs say they believe the case could ultimately involve 30,000 workers. The group is asking for back pay and other damages for a range of violations including “off the clock” work and the requirement that workers pay for their own uniforms.
The push is part of a concerted effort by the Service Employees International Union. The group contends that because McDonald’s corporate office controls so many aspects of the employee’s job, including uniforms, training and hiring procedures, that McDonald’s can be identified as an employer much like the franchise owner.
The approach is modeled after a similar tactic used in a recent lawsuit against Domino’s. That case was originally filed against a local New York-based franchisee but eventually included the corporate Domino’s Pizza entity. The plaintiffs claimed that Domino’s was a joint employer because it was able to dictate policies including hiring procedures, training, uniforms, time and pay records and many other aspects of the workplace. Though the case never made it to trial, during the settlement phase the franchisee agreed to pay back wages and the corporate parent agreed to make changes to some of its corporate-wide policies.
Many in the labor law industry viewed the case as the first step in holding the corporations that benefit from the work of the underpaid workers accountable for the mistreatment they are forced to endure. Connecting the big corporations with the actions of franchise owners would be a huge victory for workers who often have very limited recourse when filing serious grievances.
The problem of wage violations in the restaurant industry is notorious. A study form 2009 found that 18 percent of workers in the restaurant industry have suffered minimum wage violations while 70 percent face overtime violations and 74 percent experience “off the clock” violations. These include requests for employees to do tasks without being paid, such as cleaning or closing up.
Source: “Subway Leads Fast Food Industry in Underpaying Workers,” by Annalyn Kurtz, published at Money.CNN.com on May 1, 2014.
Source: “McDonald's Stole Wages, Workers' Lawsuits Say,” by Candace Choi, published at USAToday.com on March 13, 2014.
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