Burger King Hit With Unpaid Overtime Class Action Lawsuit

Burger King Corp. misclassified its operations coaches and trainees as exempt employees in order to stiff them of overtime pay, saving the fast-food chain millions of dollars, according to allegations in a recently filed overtime pay class action lawsuit brought by a former employee.

By classifying the coaches and trainees as exempt employees with no supervisory or administrative responsibilities, whose jobs consisted of performing “menial laborious tasks, including, operating cash registers, cleaning bathrooms, greeting and serving customers, and cooking food,” Burger King intentionally and repeatedly violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the unpaid overtime class action lawsuit filed by plaintiff Ronald R.

“This was done so the Defendant would not have to pay their employees overtime while they were waiting for positions to open up, as Defendant continually hired for this position where the supply far exceeded the available positions,” according to wage and hour class action lawsuit.

“Due to high turnover, Defendant filled these spots like the NFL keeps a practice squad, waiting until someone quit or was fired, but in the interim working many hours in restaurants performing non-exempt duties without being compensated for overtime hours worked. This decision was made at the highest corporate level, was wrong, and the actors knew it,” the class action lawsuit states.

“The policy saves millions of dollars in labor costs,” according to unpaid overtime class action lawsuit.

“In fact, years of litigation (even if unsuccessful), is more cost effective then complying with the law due to its rolling statute of limitations. Said simply, this was a business decision to purposefully evade our country’s national wage and hour law — the FLSA,” the Burger King class action lawsuit continues.

New hires in Burger King’s corporate leadership development program, who would eventually become coaches and managers, had to work at least four days a week, up to 13 hours a day, cooking hamburgers and French fries and cleaning restrooms, the class action lawsuit alleges. Once in management, the trainees would be expected to know how every aspect of the restaurant is run so that they can train other workers. But the overtime pay lawsuit maintains that overtime is mandated during the training program, during which “reasonable lunch breaks” are denied.

According to the unpaid overtime class action lawsuit, Ronald spent five months in the trainee program, where he regularly worked 60-hour work weeks. Even after he was promoted to a sales, profit and operations coach, Ronald claims that he never supervised two or more full-time employees, the threshold needed to satisfy the executive exemption.

The overtime pay class action lawsuit, filed in a Florida federal court, seeks to represent a nationwide Class of Burger King employees who in the past three years have been classified as trainees in the leadership program and/or who have worked as a sales, profit and training coach in one of Burger King’s more than 10,000 restaurants across the country.

There are some 1,500 employees who may qualify to be part of the Class, the wage and hour class action lawsuit states. Burger King is headquartered in Miami.

Sometimes referred to as the Wage and Hour Bill, the Fair Labor and Standards Act (FLSA), establishes a minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping requirements, and youth employment standards for employees.

Non-exempt employees, according to the FLSA, may be required to work an eight-hour workday and a 40-hour workweek. Any work above that threshold is subject to overtime at a rate of time-and-a-half, or 1.5 times the worker’s regular pay.

Overtime pay is not required for work on weekends, holidays, or regular days of rest, unless the work constitutes actual overtime on those days.

The Burger King Unpaid Overtime Class Action Lawsuit is 1:15-cv-20455, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division.

Join a Free Wage & Hour Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were forced to work off the clock or without overtime pay within the past 3 years, you have rights – and you don’t have to take on the company alone.

Get a Free Case Evaluation Now