Lieff Cabraser represents employee plaintiffs in class action litigation against fast food chain McDonald’s over the company’s so-called “no-poach” employee pay and mobility restrictions which prohibit employees from seeking opportunities at other establishments within the vast McDonald’s chain. In August of 2023, the Seventh Circuit overturned a lower court’s dismissal of the case, holding that the plaintiff-employees could bring their case to trial. McDonald’s subsequently sought review by the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to reverse the Seventh Circuit’s decision in favor of the plaintiffs. (The Seventh Circuit panel found that the trial court had prematurely decided “complex” antitrust issues in the matter.)
On Monday March 18, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take review of the case. This win for the plaintiff-employees means that the case will now proceed to trial in the lower court, where plaintiffs will have the opportunity to prove their case against the fast food giant.
Lieff Cabraser partner Dean M. Harvey, who represents lead plaintiff Leinani Deslandes, noted that the 7th Circuit correctly recognized that antitrust laws protect workers from collusion by employers in the same way that they protect consumers from price fixing. “We look forward to resuming this important case in the trial court,” Harvey said, “and to obtaining relief for the hundreds of thousands of workers who were underpaid because of McDonald’s misconduct.”
About Lieff Cabraser’s “No-Poach” Cases
Lieff Cabraser represents fast-food employees in a series of lawsuits challenging the practices of fast-food franchises that illegally restrict employee mobility, advancement, and pay. The complaints allege the restaurants’ practices of restricting employees from being hired at other same-franchise stores violate antitrust law and cause worker wages to be lower than they should be. The practices also significantly limit employees’ career mobility and advancement. Learn more about our firm’s Labor Antitrust practice.
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