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PAGA lawsuit Accuses Panera Bakery Chain California Labor Violations

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A PAGA lawsuit accuses Panera, a fast-casual bakery-chain café, of several California labor law violations, including wage theft.

Los Angeles, CAPanera, a bakery-restaurant chain, is accused of stiffing its hourly catering staff out of overtime wages and numerous other California labor law violations. A Private Attorneys General Act lawsuit (PAGA) lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in early January by Selene Ramirez, a Panera caterer.

Ramirez has worked at Panera’s Tracy, California location as a catering lead since 2017. Her job description includes preparing and delivering menu items to catering customers’ locations, then cleaning, packing and transporting catering equipment after the event and finally driving back to the restaurant. She accuses Panera of violating the following California labor codes:
  • Failure to pay overtime wages
  • Requiring nonexempt workers to remain on duty during meal and rest breaks
  • Failure to appropriately communicate with nonexempt workers regarding rest period requirements
  • Failure to pay for all time spent working at its locations since employees were required to stay in contact with management and their colleagues
  • Failing to appropriately calculate the wages due to nonexempt employees with regard to the hours they put in during their shifts

Travel and Communications Costs


Caterers use their personal mobile devices to stay in contact with management and their colleagues without being compensated. As well, employees use phone and internet bill costs to communicate with management staff and to use GPS navigation systems to locate and arrive at the catering events for Panera customers without being compensated.

According to court documents, Panera would provide partial reimbursement to nonexempt employees only for mileage, at a rate of 45 to 46 cents, which is far below the Internal Revenue Service's mandatory rate of 67 cents. And Rameriz used her own car to drive to catering locations, which she wasn’t paid for. As well, Panera wouldn't reimburse employees for the use of their mobile devices at all, according to the complaint.

The case is Selene Ramirez v. Panera LLC, case number unknown, in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.


Panera Wage Theft History


Panera is all too familiar with wage theft lawsuits. In 2002, the company was accused of manipulating workers’ timesheets to avoid paying overtime wages. The proposed class action was filed in a federal court in Buffalo., under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York law. The lawsuit accused Panera of manipulating records to inaccurately log break times, and cheating some employees out of reimbursement for using their cars and cellphones while working with catering clients. Sounds familiar…

In June 2020, a Panera franchisee was ordered to pay $4.6 million to settle a class action case involving overtime. According to restaurantdive.com, the suit was filed in early 2018 when assistant managers in Ohio claimed they were forced to work without overtime pay. They also claimed to be wrongly classified as exempt from overtime protections. More than 900 assistant managers joined the lawsuit.

In 2019, another class action suit was settled in a Washington, D.C. court for nearly $2 million. According to Bloomberg Law, the plaintiffs also argued that the chain wrongly classified assistant managers as exempt from overtime requirements, which could have stemmed from the company’s reclassification of assistant managers in 2016.

Wage lawsuits are among the most common in the restaurant industry, and franchisees are now on their own if they’re found liable for such violations.

READ ABOUT CALIFORNIA LABOR LAW LAWSUITS

California Labor Law Legal Help

If you or a loved one have suffered losses in this case, please click the link below and your complaint will be sent to an employment law lawyer who may evaluate your California Labor Law claim at no cost or obligation.

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