Fast Food and Quick-Service Employees Wage and Hour Violations Investigation
Recent efforts by cities, states, and employees themselves to raise the minimum wage have brought to light the prevalent wage and hour violations within the fast food and quick-service food industries. Employees in these restaurants are often required to work long hours without receiving all wages due to them, including overtime. Additionally, some employees are improperly classified by their employers as “exempt” managers, and are thus not eligible for overtime, despite having little or no managerial duties. Most unpaid work for fast food and quick service employees includes opening the store, preparing food, serving customers, assembling food containers, unpacking boxes, counting cash drawers at the start/end of the day, preparing deposits, and cleaning the store.
One example of alleged wage and hour violations in the fast food industry is a series of cases recently filed against Subway by hourly and exempt employees. In Brown vs. Subway RNR, Inc. and Nancy Garofolo, Case No. 9:14-cv-80597, S.D. Fl., 5/5/2014, Garcia vs. P.K.C., Inc., dba Subway and Paula K. Corbin, Case No. 1:14-cv-02930, N.D. Il., 4/23/14, and Chopra vs. Jagkam Enterprises, LTD d/b/a Subway, Marsus Enterprises, LTD d/b/a Subway, and Kaminsky, Case No. 2:14-cv-02096, E.D. NY, 4/2/14, hourly employees have alleged that their managers required them to work in excess of 40 hours per week, but the hourly employees did not receive all of their overtime compensation.
Additionally, in Singh vs. A&P Investments, Inc. d/b/a Subway, and Patel, Case no. 1:14-cv-00306, D. Co, 2/3/14, a Subway manager alleged that he was improperly classified as exempt from federal overtime requirements because he did not have authority to hire or fire employees and thus did not have any true managerial duties.
If you are currently working at a fast food or quick service restaurant or have worked at one within the past three years, and you have experienced uncompensated off-the-clock work or work as a manager without hire/fire authority, please contact our firm immediately.
You can contact us by completing the form on this page or by calling us toll-free at (888)714-0881. Please reference that you are contacting us regarding the Fast Food Employee Investigation.
