- Chipotle agreed to pay workers in NYC $20 million over labor violations.
- The city says the chain changed workers' schedules and didn't allow them to use accrued sick leave.
Chipotle reached an agreement with New York City to pay local workers about $20 million in compensation for what the city says were scheduling and sick leave violations. The payout will go to 13,000 past and present Chipotle workers impacted by the violations, plus another $1 million in civil penalties, the mayor's office said in a statement.
Hourly workers at New York City Chipotle locations will receive $50 for each week worked between November 2017 and April, 2022. Workers who left their jobs before April 30 will have to file a claim to receive payment, the city said.
"We're pleased to be able to resolve these issues and believe this settlement demonstrates Chipotle's commitment to providing opportunities for all of our team members while also complying with the Fair Workweek law," Scott Boatwright, chief restaurant officer at Chipotle, said in a statement to Insider.
Chipotle's payments stem from an investigation by NYC's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) beginning in 2018 that led to a 2019 lawsuit accusing the chain of hundreds of thousands of labor violations of the Fair Workweek Law, which mandates that workers must have 14-day advance notice of schedules or extra pay and that workers must have a certain break period between shifts or receive an extra $100.
At the time, it was the largest suit ever brought by New York City under the Fair Workweek law, claiming Chipotle owed $150 million to workers.
New York City said that its investigation found that Chipotle violated the law by not allowing workers to use sick leave that they'd accrued, failing to offer open shifts to current workers before hiring more, making workers work "clopening" shifts — closing at night and then opening the next morning — without appropriate extra payment, and more, according to the statement from the mayor's office.
"We have implemented a number of compliance initiatives, including additional management resources and adding new and improved time-keeping technology, to help our restaurants and we look forward to continuing to promote the goals of predictable scheduling and access to work hours for those who want them," Boatwright said.
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