The New Food Economy reports Dunkin' is currently in the process of suing certain stores. In particular, they're going after some of their almost 10,000 franchisees who employ undocumented workers. They have reportedly gone after at least 30 stores since late 2018.

In a few cases, Dunkin' zeroed in on franchisees who hadn’t verified their employees' legal statuses, and upon learning there were undocumented workers among them, sought to terminate their relationship with the franchise in court.

Most recently, Dunkin' filed a suit just last month against Thomas Sheehan and Kenneth Larson, a pair that owns nine Dunkin' locations across Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. After a two-year tax review, they claimed Sheehan and Larson were keeping outdated records of their employees, and that it wasn't verified if they were legal to work in the United States.

Per VICE, Dunkin' was particularly focused on the lack of employees' mandatory I-9o forms, as that, in their mind, equates to both a violation of immigration laws as well as their own franchising agreement. They sought to have all nine of the aforementioned locations shut down entirely.

According to Restaurant Business, some of these lawsuits were prompted by a "customer complaint," but the company hasn't commented further on any pending litigation, which has also extended to some Baskin-Robbins store owners.

Tess Koman Senior Editor Tess Koman covers breaking (food) news, opinion pieces, and features on larger happenings in the food world.

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