Chipotle Ordered to Rehire Worker It Fired for Joining the Fight for $15

More bad news for the burrito chain.

Chipotle's had an awfully rough go of things lately: On top of the recent foodborne illness outbreaks (and subsequent lawsuit), now the company is in trouble with the National Labor Relations Board.

The NLRB ruled yesterday that Chipotle must rehire an employee who participated in the Fight for $15 fast food strikes, reports the Huffington Post. The board's decision reaffirmed a judge's April ruling that the company broke the law when a St. Louis, Mo. location fired worker Patrick Leeper in 2014.

Leeper missed two days of work to participate in the Fight for $15 fast food strikes; after returning to work, NLRB's ruling reveals that Leeper's superiors told him "he let the store down, let Chipotle down, and let his coworkers down." While Chipotle claimed Leeper was let go for poor peformance and missing mandatory staff meetings, Nation's Restaurant News writes "the board agreed with administrative law judge Melissa Olivero that Leeper was unfairly terminated for engaging in protected union activity." Leeper had also previously been reprimanded and threatened with termination for having discussions with his co-workers about how much they earned — a right that's protected by law under the National Labor Relations Act.

The company must now offer Leeper reinstatement and compensate him for lost wages; per the Huffington Post, the chain must also "post a humbling notice of employees' labor rights inside the store."

Chipotle's not the first big chain to get in trouble with the labor board for violations of this sort: The NLRB filed multiple complaints against McDonald's last year, accusing the chain of violating the rights of striking employees by cutting their hours, threatening and interrogating them, and terminating them. McDonald's is fighting back against the labor board, arguing that it is the "victim of a union-orchestrated attack on its brand."

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