Cook Calls Out Popular Chain Restaurant For Not Giving Workers Breaks Despite Being Sued For It Previously
No restaurant is so busy or important that it can't give its workers time to rest.
Friends Stock | Shutterstock Ask anyone who's worked extensively in restaurants, especially corporate chain ones, and they'll tell you that taking a break is often not a part of the day. Restaurants may give you a discounted or free meal before or after your shift, but once that shift starts? Forget about it.
On top of just being unethical, this is often illegal, and yet, in all too many places, it is standard practice. One restaurant worker on Reddit called out their employer for this practice, which has endured despite the company having been sued for it in the past.
The cook called out Chili's for not giving breaks to its employees.
Working 8-10 hours with no break is hard enough at a desk job. But when you're running around a restaurant like a headless chicken — or worse still, running around a restaurant kitchen — it can be downright unbearable. Take it from one who did it for more than 10 years. Often, you don't even have time to go to the bathroom.
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And for one new Chili's cook, this situation was enough to make them walk off the job on day three. "I just walked out of a Chilis in Corpus [Christi]," the cook wrote in their Reddit post. "I asked about how [breaks] work today, and I was shocked to learn that they don't do it."
But even more shocking was the response they got from their co-workers. "I was absolutely flabbergasted at the reaction from the team," they wrote. "Each and every one of them laughed in my face when I asked if they get breaks."
Not giving restaurant workers breaks is standard practice, and in most cases, it's perfectly legal.
When this Chili's cook heard that there would be no breaks given, they were immediately indignant and insisted it couldn't be legal. The joke's on them, unfortunately. In yet another example of America's absurd employment laws, there is no federal law requiring breaks or meal times at ANY job, let alone restaurants.
But like so many abusive practices, it has simply become an accepted practice — just one of the things you have to endure to make a living.
This worker wasn't having it. They left messages with HR and management, who they feel should have given a heads-up about the practice.
"I wish they had told me in the interview," they wrote. "I would have walked out," especially because they walk to and from work and feel they "legitimately need a break to perform well."
Studies have consistently shown we ALL need breaks to perform well, in fact. Denying breaks in restaurants is also a food safety issue.
But perhaps most shocking of all was the response they got from their fellow Chili's workers, both at their job and on Reddit. "Did you expect a [30-minute break] during the dinner rush?" one person snidely asked. "Glad you learned early this business isn't for you."
Others outright bragged about having had "not one break in five years," which left a lot of people mystified. "It’s funny how those people were commenting like you were the crazy person for wanting breaks," one commenter wrote. "The boot is so far down their throat that they were trying to justify being exploited."
Chili's has faced legal trouble for denying breaks even in states where they are required.
No federal laws exist requiring breaks and meal rest periods, but some states do require them. California is notably among them. The state requires a 30-minute break be provided for every five hours of work, and if it fails to do so employees are entitled to an extra hour's pay.
Chili's, along with its parent company Brinker International, learned this the hard way in 2012, when a 2004 lawsuit filed by five Chili's employees finally reached its conclusion.
The workers claimed that Chili's routinely denied them break and meal periods, often forcing them to take breaks at the beginning of their shifts when they'd just arrived — a common scam that restaurants use to circumvent employment laws.
The case eventually came to encompass more than 100,000 employees of Chili's and other Brinker brands, including Maggiano's Little Italy. After winding up in the California Supreme Court, Brinker was forced to pay the employees $56.5 million in withheld wages from break periods.
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Brinker has had several other labor violations suits filed against it at both the federal and state level for everything from discrimination to safety violations to wage theft.
Kudos to this worker for not standing for it. Just because something is standard practice doesn't make it right, and nobody should have to put up with involuntarily working hours and hours at a job without a break.
As one of my old restaurant owners used to say, "It's food on a plate; it's not that serious." Give your employees a moment to breathe. Nobody's saving lives by slinging hash.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.