Taco Bell To Pay Workers Almost $500,000 For Unpaid Lunch Breaks

A federal jury in California has ruled in favor of underpaid Taco Bell workers who skipped their meal breaks. The chain is to pay 134,000 workers a total of $495,913, according to Nation's Restaurant News.

However, the company was found not guilty of other allegations in the 2007 class action lawsuit, including unpaid overtime, unpaid minimum wages, unreimbursed business expenses, and vested accrued vacation wages, as there was not sufficient evidence to back these claims.

The plaintiffs also claimed that Taco Bell only gave employees working seven-hour shifts one 10-minute break instead of two, and that it failed to provide meal breaks to employees before the fifth hour of work during shifts lasting longer than six hours.

The decision found that employees were only paid for 30 minutes instead of the full hour if they skipped their 30-minute meal breaks.