Burger King Franchisee Owes More Than a Million Dollars in Wage Theft Case

A San Francisco franchise group that operated multiple Burger King locations now owes $1.9 million in a massive wage theft case.

Between 2016 and 2019, Golden Gate Restaurant Group operated five Burger King locations in The Golden City, though they ran over a dozen in the Bay Area. The owner, franchisee Monu Singh, failed to pay the fast-food employees minimum wages and overtime. Workers were also denied proper breaks during their shifts. In addition to the $1.9 million citation from the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, Singh also owes over $800,000 for failing to make healthcare payments on behalf of 235 employees. To date, only a few of them have been paid.

Former employee Adriana Rendon, who worked at the 1701 Fillmore Street location, says that during her seven-year employment, she and other workers were not allowed to take lunch breaks and were even ordered to clock out without pay to complete certain jobs. Rendon says that anyone who tried to take sick days was also retaliated against.

“I knew that this was unjust, and I came together with my coworkers to organize ourselves and raise our voices to demand what they owed us and to stop these abuses,” Rendon stated.

Among the Burger King locations that Singh’s company owned was the now shut down Burger King at Market and Grove street, which was permanently closed in 2019 for numerous health code violations. All five of their San Francisco locations have either been shut down or sold, which makes some question whether or not the victims will ever get the money owed to them.

Kim Ouilette, an attorney at Legal Aid at Work, who is working on getting some of the former employee’s justice, says many businesses will forfeit their companies just to avoid paying these hefty labor fines. 

“When workers are brave enough to speak up and enforce their rights, these corporations try to shift assets or even go out of business entirely to avoid liability, and then open up under a new name,” Ouilette said in a statement.