Wage theft always starts with labor law compliance. They didn't take the required break on their shift...better adjust the hours to be compliant. Now it's normalized and rationalized. Each employee has to make a stink to address the theft and are dismissed without a second thought. I used to work blue collar service industry and saw this happen in nearly every company where I worked. There is no union or personal agency. The individual worker is discarded at the first sign of legal friction.
I worked a job where every person worked 63 hours a week standard at $7.50 an hour. We would have a lunch break where one person would go fetch lunch and bring it back each day. We would all meet in the break room and scarf down our food in a few minutes and get back on the floor. We literally clocked this on time cards. We might take up to fifteen minutes to eat but accounting would adjust it to 30 minutes every time. No consultation, warnings or notices of any kind. The timecard was gone at the end of each week so you had no record of your actual punches.
I worked a job where every person worked 63 hours a week standard at $7.50 an hour. We would have a lunch break where one person would go fetch lunch and bring it back each day. We would all meet in the break room and scarf down our food in a few minutes and get back on the floor. We literally clocked this on time cards. We might take up to fifteen minutes to eat but accounting would adjust it to 30 minutes every time. No consultation, warnings or notices of any kind. The timecard was gone at the end of each week so you had no record of your actual punches.