McDonald’s Hit with Time-Shaving, Overtime Class Action Lawsuit

It sounds pretty simple: an employee should get paid for working overtime. However, there are hundreds of unpaid overtime lawsuits popping up around the country. The latest accusation is that McDonalds is tampering with shift records in an effort to cut costs. According to a recently filed class action lawsuit, more than 12 McDonald’s restaurants — all owned by the same person in New York — have shaved hours off of employees’ time cards.

Plaintiff Jeffrey Schuyler is at the helm of the New York McDonald’s unpaid overtime lawsuits. Behind him are 500 employees all targeting Ralph Crawford, a successful McDonald’s franchise owner. A red flag was triggered when Crawford began requesting alarmingly high time punch changes. Suddenly, hundreds of employees’ overtime hours were changed to eight-hour shifts. However, Crawford might not be the only one to blame in this doctored time sheet lawsuit.

Does McDonald’s Encourage Unpaid Overtime Tampering?

While Crawford was the person physically changing the time cards, the class action lawsuit claims that the McDonald’s corporation is encouraging it. The mega food retailer was notified of the alleged problem but did nothing to fix it, according to the complaint.

Even worse, Schuyler claims that the company encourages franchise owners to “fix” overtime since being paid time and a half isn’t conducive to making money. After all, you can’t make much money from a dollar menu when employees are getting paid 50 percent over their regular rate of pay for overtime.

When a McDonald’s employee works overtime, a manager is alerted with a warning message on the time card management screen. Schuyler says this scares managers into changing the records, throwing the employees under the bus. Schuyler began working at a Crawford-owned McDonald’s during the summer of 2012. When he realized what was happening, he complained to a supervisor but was demoted and then fired.

The Alleged McDonald’s Cover-up

Schuyler claims that his supervisor told him “time shaving” was a regular practice at McDonald’s, and when he checked other employees’ time records himself, he was astounded. Managers were regularly erasing one full hour from employees’ shifts. Schuyler was given $1,000 to make up for his lost hours, but some critics might call that hush money. When the time shaving continued, he complained again — this time to Crawford directly after being verbally abused by a manager.

Crawford met with Schuyler, but so far the details of that meeting are unknown. However, following that meeting is when Schuyler consulted a wage and hour attorney and filed a class action lawsuit against McDonald’s with the support of hundreds of employees. The case alleges that McDonald’s tampers with time sheets and forces employees to work through breaks.

Are You Owed Unpaid Overtime?

McDonald’s isn’t the only employer to be accused of shady wage and hour practices. If you’re owed unpaid overtime or have been bullied into working through breaks, you might have a wage and hour legal claim.

Learn more by visiting the Wage & Hour, Unpaid Overtime Class Action Lawsuit Investigation. While there, submit your information for a free legal review from a skilled wage and hour attorney who will fight for your rights – and the money that’s rightfully yours.