Workers at a HelloFresh facility in Newark, New Jersey have claimed in court documents that they were verbally and physically abused and denied regular bathroom breaks, with one former worker telling the Guardian he experienced incontinence issues as a result. The newly proposed amended complaint comes in a class action lawsuit first filed in August 2024 against the food prep service giant and staffing agencies. A New Jersey state court judge is expected to review the amended complaint in a hearing scheduled for 23 October.
In the civil lawsuit, workers allege HelloFresh and temp staff managers took ID badges from temp workers that are required to be able to leave the facility, repeatedly threatened to call ICE and immigration authorities on workers, subjected workers to physical and verbal abuse, sexually harassed Hispanic female employees, and discriminated against the temp workforce that consisted primarily of Hispanic workers in violation of New Jersey’s anti-discrimination laws. A spokesperson for HelloFresh denied all allegations in the lawsuit. We vehemently denied these allegations when this lawsuit was filed over two years ago, and we continue to vehemently deny them today,” the spokesperson said in an email.
In a motion to dismiss, filed by HelloFresh in April 2025, the subscription-based meal kit delivery service denied the allegations in the lawsuit. Action Staffing, On Target Staffing and ProStaff Workforce Solutions did not respond to multiple requests for comment but have moved to dismiss the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges HelloFresh assigned its Hispanic workers “the hardest work”, and that supervisors consistently made racist, abusive remarks to workers and berated them for speaking Spanish rather than English.
The suit claims supervisors enforced a no-cellphone policy for Hispanic workers, while not enforcing it for others. Luis Penafiel, a former temp worker at the HelloFresh distribution center in Newark, New Jersey from November 2021 to August 2023, and a plaintiff in the lawsuit claims that the working conditions began to deteriorate shortly after he was hired. We started noting the discrimination,” he said.
The lawsuit described the alleged assaults as managers “physically beating workers”, “putting their hands around workers’ necks” and “screaming in workers’ ears”. The lawsuit also claimed workers were denied medical treatment for injuries sustained on the job. In court filings, the staffing agencies claimed HelloFresh offered direct employment to all workers, which the plaintiffs’ lawsuit disputes.
Target Staffing’s attorneys argued in its motion to dismiss that the workers falsified their immigration documents and would not clear HelloF
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