The Alarming Reason An NYC Dunkin' Has To Pay Its Employees $260k

Unfortunately, just about every restaurant chain has its scrapes with scandal. Yes, even our beloved Dunkin'. Some of the biggest scandals to ever hit Dunkin' include accusations of fake ingredients, overcharging customers, and a highly controversial ad for a charcoal donut.

But Dunkin's troubles aren't limited to customer relations. The donut chain has also received several slaps on the wrist for its labor practices. According to the Chicago Tribune, Dunkin' was sued in 2016 for wage theft, specifically for changing employees' time cards in order to avoid paying them overtime. Employees also alleged that Dunkin' made them pay out of pocket for discrepancies in cash register contents.

More recently, Dunkin' faced $120,000 in fines after a group of 10 Massachusetts franchisees were found to be in violation of child labor laws (via Mass.gov). Several Dunkin' locations had minors work more hours than allowed by state laws, and other locations did not have work permits for its minors. Dunkin' is now being sued yet again for further labor law violations. 

One Dunkin' location on Staten Island was recently fined $260,000 in restitution and civil penalties after violating "nearly all aspects" of local labor laws, according to Staten Island Live. These violations included failure to give employees their schedule two weeks in advance, adding hours to employees' shifts without written consent, scheduling employees to work back-to-back shifts with less than 11 hours between, failure to comply with sick leave policies, and failure to compensate employees for last-minute schedule changes.

Per NYC Consumer and Worker Protection, fast food employers are required to have Fair Workweek posters in areas accessible to workers. This Dunkin' location in particular did not. As a result, the chain will be paying restitution to 111 Dunkin' employees, with payouts ranging from $150 to $6,180. Another employee will receive more than $45,000, as they were not paid for sick leave. This incident may serve as a reminder to both Dunkin' and other restaurant chains that worker rights are not up for debate.