Popeyes class action claims employees made to work through lunch, breaks

Popeyes class action lawsuit overview:

• Who: Plaintiff Jose Mendoza Gonzales filed a class action lawsuit against Popeyes and EBI Enterprises Inc.
• Why: Popeyes allegedly failed to provide legally-required meal and rest breaks and failed to pay employees all wages they were owed.
• Where: The Popeyes class action lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court.

A new Popeyes class action lawsuit alleges the restaurant chain required employees to work through their lunch and rest breaks without pay and provided “confusing” wage statements in violation of California labor law.

Plaintiff Jose Mendoza Gonzalez filed the Popeyes class action on behalf of himself and other California Popeyes employees who allegedly worked without being paid all of the wages they were owed pursuant to California labor laws.

Not only did Popeyes fail to pay some of its California employees for all the time they worked, but the restaurant also allegedly provided employees with inaccurate wage statements preventing them from discovering the breaches of California labor laws.

Popeyes class action alleges several California labor law violations

Popeyes also allegedly failed to provide putative class members with uninterrupted meal and rest periods as required by law, Gonzalez says. He says Popeyes frequently required employees to work during their meal and rest breaks without compensating them appropriately.

Gonzales claims that Popeyes regularly required employees to work shifts longer than 5 hours without an uninterrupted lunch break and shifts longer than 10 hours without providing a second meal period of at least 30 minutes.

Popeyes also failed to pay “premium pay” in the amount of one hour’s worth of wages for each missed meal period in violation of California law, Gonzalez alleges.

Because of their missed meal and rest breaks, employees often worked shifts in excess of eight hours per day and 40 hours per week but were not paid for their overtime hours, according to the Popeyes class action lawsuit.

Additionally, Popeyes allegedly provided employees with wage statements that did not accurately account for wages, overtime and premium pay for the missed meal and rest breaks even though the restaurant chain knew employees were entitled to this pay.

Popeyes also failed to reimburse employees for expenses they incurred purchasing products necessary to perform their duties, such as dish detergent, Gonzales claims.

The Popeyes class action lawsuit asserts claims for various violations of California labor law, including failure to pay minimum wage and overtime pay, failure to provide uninterrupted meal periods or offer appropriate compensation for missed breaks and other violations.

Popeyes previously faced a false advertising class action lawsuit alleging the company duped consumers into thinking its Chicken Tender menu item was made entirely with chicken tenderloin meat.

Are you a restaurant employee who has been denied lawful rest and meal breaks? Let us know what you think of the Popeyes class action lawsuit in the comments.

Gonzalez is represented by Emil Davtyan, David Yeremian, Roman Shkodnik and Emma Geesaman of D.Law Inc.

The Popeyes class action lawsuit is Jose Mendoza Gonzalez v. EBI Enterprises Inc., et al., Case No. 24STCV14878, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.

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