Fighting Wage Suppression in the Fast Food Industry: Bautista et al v. Carl Karcher Enterprises LLC

Overview

Towards Justice combats anticompetitive practices that undermine worker power. In 2017, Towards Justice filed a lawsuit in California on behalf of current and former employees of Carl’s Jr. restaurants alleging that Carl’s Jr. and its franchisor CKE engaged in a conspiracy to suppress the wages and working conditions of the restaurant-based managers who run hundreds of Carl’s Jr. restaurants across the state by agreeing with each other not to hire each other’s workers. They did this even though CKE insisted that it didn’t employ people who worked for franchisees, and instead that franchisees were independent businesses. Our case drew public attention to this issue and helped to initiate public and private enforcement actions around the country. Towards Justice represented the plaintiffs with co-counsel Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca, LLP and Tostrud Law Group PC.