Why Does Luckin Coffee Staff Work Unpaid Overtime?

Luckin Coffee employees report working unpaid overtime to prepare for surprise quality control inspections. Night shift staff, whose shift ends at 10:30 p.m., stay behind to deep-clean the store until every corner is spotless, sometimes past 1 a.m., so the store passes an inspection that may come the next day. If inspectors do not arrive, the whole cleaning routine is repeated the following night.

Staffing cuts since March 1 have left closing tasks that once took two people to one, yet the extra hours rarely bring overtime pay. Clock-out reminders keep pushing during off-duty time, and the surveillance system logs inventory counting as a break, quietly eating into meal periods. Unpaid overtime and disputed working-hour calculations are now the main complaints among frontline staff.

In the coffee chain industry, standardized store operations management often brings additional execution pressure. Recently, Luckin Coffee employees have reported that in order to prepare for surprise inspections by the quality control department, night shift staff are still required to stay after their normal off-duty hours to carry out deep cleaning. If the inspection does not come the next day, the entire process must be repeated, and there have even been cases of employees still busy in the store in the early hours of the morning. Since the March 1 incident, some stores have reduced staffing, and the closing tasks originally shared by two people now fall on one person alone, yet overtime work rarely comes with corresponding overtime pay. In addition, the system continuously pushes clock-out reminders during off-duty hours, further intensifying employees' anxiety. Some employees have pointed out that when they leave their posts to count inventory, the surveillance system defaults them to being on break, causing their actual meal time to be invisibly encroached upon. With all these factors combined, unpaid overtime and working-hour calculation issues are becoming the main troubles for frontline employees.

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For office workers, being able to clock off on time is probably the greatest daily wish. Even if they occasionally have to stay and work overtime due to unexpected situations, even with overtime subsidies, they can't help but grumble a little inwardly.

Recently, frontline employees at Luckin Coffee have found themselves in exactly this situation. At the end of every month, quality control staff visit stores for inspections. To avoid losing points, many stores' night shift colleagues voluntarily stay after their 10:30 p.m. off-duty time to clean, tidying every corner of the store until it is spotless, so that even if a surprise quality control inspection comes the next day, they can handle it with ease.

However, if quality control does not show up the next day, the entire meticulous cleaning process must be repeated that night. Sometimes even at one in the morning, the store lights can still be seen on, with detail-oriented store managers still buried in cleaning, fearing that a subpar quality control score would drag down the performance of the entire store's staff.

Some employees also admit that they are just ordinary workers who have long had no energy to worry about quality control and performance, and simply want to clock off on time. But after the store's operating hours were adjusted, the time left for closing work was greatly compressed, and completing everything meant only unpaid overtime.

What irritates overtime workers even more is that while they are busy carrying out duty tasks and finishing closing procedures, wishing only to get it done quickly and shut the store, the backend keeps popping up messages at this very time, repeatedly reminding them that it is already time to clock out. This contradictory operation only adds to the anxiety in Luckin employees' hearts.

Since the "March 1 incident," some Luckin stores have faced a staffing shortage, with the workload originally requiring two people to complete together now all piled onto one person. If the corresponding closing tasks cannot be completed within the prescribed time, employees can only extend their off-duty time on their own, working an extra ten-plus minutes or even longer for free.

In addition, some employees complain that according to Luckin's rules, they should be entitled to certain rest time during work. But as long as employees leave the bar counter to count inventory in the stockroom, receive goods, or organize and stack items, and the surveillance cameras cannot capture them, the system defaults the employee to having entered rest status. By the time they really need to eat and take a breather, they discover that their rest time has long vanished, and the whole day feels like being a machine running nonstop, with not a moment's respite.

Therefore, in order to clock off earlier, some colleagues will close early depending on the situation, or cut down on some non-essential work steps. If a customer places an order close to closing time, and the equipment for making drinks has just been completely cleaned, employees may try to persuade the customer to cancel the order to avoid going through another tedious round of cleaning.

Overtime is one of the situations workers least want to face, and Luckin's colleagues are certainly no exception. However, some employees say that if extra working hours could be calculated as overtime pay according to regulations, they would not be entirely unwilling to accept overtime. But if the time they put in cannot be exchanged for due compensation, that is too discouraging, making people want to learn from a groundhog and let out a loud shout to vent their inner frustration.

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.