Turner v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.

123 F. Supp. 3d 1300, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110933, 2015 WL 4979770
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedAugust 21, 2015
DocketCivil Action No. 1:14-cv-02612-JLK
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 123 F. Supp. 3d 1300 (Turner v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Turner v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., 123 F. Supp. 3d 1300, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110933, 2015 WL 4979770 (D. Colo. 2015).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

John L. Kane, Senior U.S. District Judge

This wage and fair labor standards case is one of several around the country brought by employees of Chipotle Mexican Grill on behalf of themselves and those similarly situated. The gist of the workers’ complaints is that company time keeping practices result in closing shift employees having to continue working after they are automatically timed out. The matter is before me on Plaintiffs’ Motion for Conditional Collective Action Certification and for Judicial Notice to Class (Doc. 28). Spe[1302]*1302cifically, Plaintiffs move for entry of an Order of “conditional collective action certification” and for company-wide judicial notice to all current and former non-exempt hourly workers employed by Chipo-tle for the three years preceding the filing of this action (excluding employees who worked at the Crystal, Minnesota Chipotle restaurant who are plaintiffs in a related action).1 I have considered the Motion carefully.

For the reasons set forth below, I GRANT the Motion, but do so under a liberal joinder standard rather than any application of Rule 23’s class action “certification” process. I am persuaded that a proper reading of the FLSA at this stage of 'Collective action proceedings requires little more than the permissive joinder of putative class members, and I reject the premise that collective action certification under 29 U.S.C. § 216(b) must hew to the formalities of a two-step “certification” process under Rule 23, Fed. R. Civ. P.2 Any qualified .Chipotle worker who comes forward as a “similarly situated” employee may join in the action, subject to severance or other motion for misjoinder as the facts of the case develop. In so ruling, I reject the grudging, store-by-store approach adopted by the district court in Harris, and opt instead to give Plaintiffs ali the rope they request so that their claims may be fully, if potentially not- favorably, resolved.

1. BACKGROUND

In their First Amended Collective Action Complaint, Plaintiffs Leah ' Turner, Araceli Gutierrez, Markeitta Ford, Jolessa Wade, Danya Granado, Brett Charles, and Ruby Tsao bring claims, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, against Defendant Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (“Chipotle”) pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., and under the state laws of Arizona, California, Colorado, and New Jersey. First Am. Collective Action Compl. (Doc. 25). Plaintiffs assert Chipotle has a company-wide policy of requiring non-exempt hourly paid employees to work “off the clock” without pay, and they seek to recover allegedly unpaid overtime compensation and other wages. See id. ¶¶ 2-3.

A. Defendant’s Business

Chipotle operates a chain of non-franchised, Mexican-style restaurants throughout the United States. Id. ¶ 84. During the proposed certification period, Chipotle operated more than 1,800 restaurants nationwide and employed more than 217,000 hourly employees, known as “Crew Members,” in its U.S. locations. Br. in Opp’n to Mot. to Certify Class (Doe. No. 80)(“Br. in Opp’n”), 6-7.

Chipotle’s official timekeeping policy explicitly provides “that all hourly employees must record and be paid for all time worked” and “prohibits any off-the-clock work.” Deck of David Gottlieb (Doc. 80-5), [1303]*1303¶ 37. Employees receive information regarding the timekeeping policy from the Crew Handbook and Restaurant Manage? ment Handbook, as well as during orientation and training. Id. at ¶ 39. ,

In order to effectively record employees’ hours worked, Chipotle uses a common food service industry computer program called “Aloha.” Gottlieb Decl. at ¶ 40. Aloha tracks employee hours and records and processes each store’s customer transactions. It also creates labor and sales projections, including “overtime alerts,” which “empowers management to make day-today mission critical decisions.” Decl. of Karen O’Connor (Doc. 28-2) at 2. In order, to compile daily sales and employment information, Aloha automatically resets every night at 12:30 a.m. in most.restaurants,3 Gottlieb Deck at ¶49. Important for this case is the fact .that any employee working when the system resets is automatically clocked out. Id.

B. The Named Plaintiffs and Their Allegations

The named Plaintiffs are each current or former hourly-paid employees at, Defendant’s restaurants in various states throughout the country: .

• Plaintiff Leah Turner was employed as a non-exempt hourly employee at Defendant’s Parker, CO restaurant from March 29, 2010 until May 23, 2011. She worked first as a Crew Member and later as a kitchen, then service, manager. Turner eventually became general manager of the Castle Rock, CO restaurant, serving, as an exempt salaried employee until March 25, 2015.
• Araceli Gutierrez was a non-exempt hourly employee at Defendant’s Santa Ana, CA restaurant from April 20, 2012 until July 24, 2014.
• Markeitta Ford and Jolessa Wade were non-exempt hourly employees at Defendant’s East Hanover, NJ restaurant from December 2013 until February 2014.
• Danya Granado was a non-exempt hourly employee at Defendant’s Aurora,. CO restaurant from June 8, 2013 until January 2, 2Ó14.
• Brett Charles was a non-exempt hourly employee at Defendant’s Gilbert, AZ restaurant from May 31,2011 until September 30,2013.
• Ruby Tsao was employed as a nonexempt hourly employee at Defendant’s Parker, CO restaurant from May 12, -2013 until September ■ 21, 2014.

See Turner Deck [Doc. No. 28-1] ¶¶ 2-4; Gutierrez Deck [Doc. No. 28-1] ¶ 2; Ford Deck [Doc. No. 28-1] ¶ 2-3; Tsao Deck [Doc. No. 28-1] ¶ 2; Gottlieb Deck [Doc. No. 80-5] ¶¶ 25, 28, 29.

Together Plaintiffs allege Chipotle “has devised and implemented general policies and practices' to deprive its hourly paid employees of the" compensation to which they are entitled,” and that these policies result in employees ’ being required to “work ‘off-the-clock,’ without pay.” Am. Compl. at ¶ 2. Plaintiffs contend Chipotle implements this policy through “centralized, company-wide labor or payroll budgets that.. .incentivize [sic] managers to understaff restaurants,” as well as through “timekeeping devices that automatically punch employees off the clock, even if they are still working.” Id. Plaintiffs claim that these policies originate at Chipotle’s corporate headquarters in Colorado to be car[1304]*1304ried out by general managers nationwide. Pis.’ Mot., at 3. Based on these allegations, Plaintiffs contend all Chipotle employees who have been required to work off the clock are “similarly situated” for the purposes of an FLSA collective action. See Id. at 27.

C. Procedural History

The procedural history of this case is tortuous, and uniquely so. It is the second action initiated by Plaintiff Leah Turner in this Court, succeeding her original action, Turner v.

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Bluebook (online)
123 F. Supp. 3d 1300, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110933, 2015 WL 4979770, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/turner-v-chipotle-mexican-grill-inc-cod-2015.