Fast-Food Fight Continues

A California judge last week rejected a bid by McDonald’s to dismiss a lawsuit by employees alleging wage theft at more than 100 company-owned and operated restaurants in the state, clearing the way for further investigation of McDonald’s pay practices.

The suit alleges that managers adjusted time records to erase hours worked by employees, failed to provide overtime, disallowed meal breaks and required unpaid work before and after shifts. It also contends that managers were pressured into the alleged practices by corporate policy that limits labor costs to a specific percentage of gross sales.

The case, one of seven similar suits filed in California, Michigan and New York, is part of a broader effort, begun in 2012, to use strikes, rallies and other tactics to pressure McDonald’s and other fast-food chains to increase wages and not to oppose union-organizing campaigns.