On July 2, 2014, the Court granted plaintiffs’ motion for leave to amend the Complaint. The complaint alleges that Chipotle Mexican Grill violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, New York Labor Laws, and other supporting New York State Department of Labor regulations by misclassifying its employees in order to avoid paying them overtime compensation. According to the complaint, “Apprentices” spent the majority of their shift completing non-exempt duties such as working on the assembly line, filling orders, grilling food, and preparing food items.
The plaintiffs will amend the complaint to convert four opt-in plaintiffs to named plaintiffs. The plaintiffs will also add four additional state labor law class action claims under the Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, and Washington labor laws. The Court declared that plaintiffs did not fail to act diligently because they could not have known the entire scope of potential plaintiffs until potential plaintiffs opted in. Further, the Court stated that because plaintiffs’ proposed new claims rely on essentially the same facts as were set out in the original complaint, it would be a waste of judicial resources to force the plaintiffs to initiate a new action. Since discovery at this stage of the case has been minimal, the Court stated that the proposed amendment to the Complaint would not prejudice Chipotle.
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