Three former Caribou Coffee managers from Minnesota filed a nationwide wage and overtime class action lawsuit in Hennepin County Court against Caribou. The class action suit, first served on Caribou on May 25, 2005, charges Caribou with wrongfully denying overtime pay due to current and former Caribou store managers and managers-in-training (MITs).

The lawsuit contends that Caribou misclassified its Store Manager and MIT positions as exempt under the Minnesota and Federal Fair Labor Standards Acts to avoid paying overtime compensation. It also alleges that Store Managers and MITs worked over 40 hours per week and spent the majority of their time engaged in non-managerial "barista work, such as waiting on customers, making various coffee drinks, serving the customers, ringing up the sales and the like. Consequently, according to the complaint, Store Managers and MITs should have been paid overtime for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week.

"Caribou directed me to work a minimum of 55 hours per week," said former manager and current plaintiff Daniel Williams-Goldberg. "Some weeks I worked much more than the required 55 hours, and Caribou never paid me overtime. Instead, Caribou told me to 'do what it takes' to get the job done. The primary goals of this lawsuit are to change the way Caribou treats these Managers and MITs, and to recover lost overtime wages," added Williams-Goldberg.

"These employees work incredibly long hours - this lawsuit seeks a structural change at Caribou that guarantees them overtime for hours worked in excess of 40," stated one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, Jon Tostrud.