Golden Gate Restaurant Group Inc., which previously operated six Burger King restaurants in San Francisco, CA, has been ordered by the state to pay $2.2 million in wage theft citations, as the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The corporation now owes 230 people who worked at the locations between 2016 and 2019 more than “$724,000 in unpaid wages,” the outlet notes, as well as more than “$371,000 in interest and an additional $1.2 million in penalties,” as the California Labor Commissioner’s Office decided in December 2022.
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The decision, the publication writes, followed the franchise owners’ appeal of a $1.9 million citation originally issued in 2020, "which has since accrued interest." Owners Monu Singh and Harkiran Randhawa are being held "personally responsible for the payments."
The former employees claim that Singh and Randhawa knowingly understaffed at least 6 BK restaurants under Golden Gate Restaurant Group ownership in an attempt to cut costs. "The practices allegedly created unsustainable working conditions for employees, according to the labor commissioner’s investigation," as noted by SF Gate.
This type of "cost-cutting maneuver," as SF Gate writes, was "not unique" to the 1200 Market St. location, the investigation found. "The violations at issue were not isolated instances that were the fault of rogue supervisors, but, based on the evidence, part and parcel of a way of operations initiated and/or known by both [owners]," read the decision by the Labor Commissioner’s Office.
Workers at these locations alleged that they worked unpaid overtime and worked through mandatory breaks as governed by California law. They also claimed that they often "doubled as cashiers, cleaners and other positions" that were not their own individual roles, according to the investigation’s report.
Takeaways From The Decision
The investigation concluded that employees were often paid "10 days after the end of the biweekly pay period." The California Labor Commissioner's Office also alleged that Singh and Randhawa were well aware of "several complaints about labor shortages stemming from employees and management," SF Gate points out, but they wouldn’t increase the staffing levels "unless sales were higher."
The investigation also found that the owners would "consistently alter employee time cards after the fact," the outlet notes, and attributed the changes to computer "system errors" or would label it "forgot to clock in."
Other changes included falsifying meal break forms to "show that staff had taken a break when they hadn’t, and that the time recording software was set up in a way," the publication writes, so that it would not allow "too many" employees to work at the same time.
How Did This Case Start?
The case originally started back in 2019 when a group of fast food employees at the 1200 Market St. location in downtown San Francisco "basically walked off the job," according to Alexx Campbell, a senior staff attorney at nonprofit law office Legal Aid at Work.
What Happens Next?
Campbell said there have been 2 investigations by government agencies regarding Singh and Randhawa. Along with the investigation by the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, the city of San Francisco is reportedly investigating Golden Gate Restaurant Group, though Campbell said that any conclusions from that investigation haven't been made public yet.
"For now, the former Burger King employees will not receive any of the citation money," SF Gate reports. "Because Singh and Randhawa plan to appeal this current decision, the next step in the process involves a higher court determining a final outcome." The publication added, "Singh and Randhawa can appeal each decision until it reaches the California Supreme Court, potentially."
