McDonald's is being sued by its employees for "stealing wages", and seven different lawsuits have been filed against them.
The fast-food workers from three different states are suing McDonald's claiming that the fast-food giant is practicing a variety of wage thefts, including forcing workers to clock out but remain t work, docking pay to purchase company-required uniforms and stiffing employees on overtime.
According to Joe Sellers, a lawyer representing the angry employees, seven class-action lawsuits were filed Wednesday and Thursday in California, Michigan and New York demanding that McDonald's pay back the stolen wages and end the practices that violate state and federal laws. The McDonald's Corporation is named in all seven lawsuits, while franchisees were included in five of them.
"Our clients are among the most economically vulnerable, and they work for a company that earned more than $5 billion in profits."
Another lawyer, Michael Ruben representing the California workers also made his claim.
"We've uncovered several unlawful schemes, but they all share a common purpose - to drive labour costs down by stealing wages from McDonald's workers."
A representative from McDonald's, Heidi Barker Sa Shakem issued a statement.
"We are currently reviewing the allegations in the lawsuits. McDonald's and our independent franchisees are committed to undertaking a comprehensive investigation of the allegations and will take any necessary actions as they apply to our respective organizations."
The seven lawsuits were followed by a year of fast-food worker protests and strikes in New York City and several other cities, where workers demanded a $15 minimum wage.
New York representative Jim Reif stated that;
"With $28 billion in revenue in 2013 alone, McDonald's can certainly afford to provide its minimum-wage workers with this money to clean their uniforms, as required by law, instead of making them pay for the privilege of wearing McDonald's advertising,"
Workers in Michigan's McDonald's franchises said their paychecks were docked for mandatory uniforms, which lowered their pay below minimum wage. A similar suit filed in New York Thursday says workers' uniform cleaning fees make their wages illegally low.Other workers said they were forced to wait for stores to get busy before they were allowed to clock in at the beginning of their shifts. Special McDonald's software monitors when labor costs are exceeding revenue in each store. Workers said when the software alerted owners that revenue was dipping, they were forced to wait for business to pick up before being allowed to clock in. Workers were not compensated for the wait time.
Fast-food and other low-wage jobs have been growing more rapidly than middle-wage jobs since 2008, adding fuel to a national debate about the growing gap between the rich and the poor in the country. President Barack Obama has said he wants to raise the federal wage higher than its current $7.25, but for now has settled for raising the federal contractor minimum wage to $10.10, which does not require congressional action. The president is asking the Labor Department to crack down on overtime abuses.
According to a survey by the National Employment Law Project, three in four low-wage workers say they have been asked to work off the clock without pay and have not been paid overtime wages and the average low-wage worker loses $2,600 per year due to illegal wage theft.
