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The franchise of fast food restaurants specializing in Tex-Mex cuisine, Chipotle Mexican Grill reported that reached an agreement with his former workers who will receive a payment of $240,000 dollars after the company was accused of violating a federal law.
Last year, Chipotle reportedly announced the permanent closure of its Augusta, Maine, location after several workers at the fast-food chain petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a union election.
The agency declared the closure illegal. In this sense, the company that has more than 2,000 stores in the United States and five other countriesannounced in a statement that the closure was unrelated to unionization and that it preferred to settle the lawsuit because “fighting it would have been onerous and costly,” it said.
Likewise, the director of corporate affairs of the company, Laurie Schalow, expressed that the chain has always respected “the organizing rights of our employees under the National Labor Relations Act and is committed to guaranteeing an equitable work environment that provides opportunities for all”, he indicated.
Chipotle further explained that the payments that former employees will receive vary according to work hours, seniority, rate of pay, among other factors. “We settled this case not because we did anything wrong, but because the time, energy and cost to litigate would have far exceeded the settlement agreement,” Schalow said.
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