Guzman Y Gomez announced May 22 that it would close all eight of its U.S. locations in the Chicago metro area, sparking a class action lawsuit from former employees who say the company failed to provide the 60-day notice required by federal and Illinois law.
The message went out without warning. Former employees of Guzman Y Gomez say they found out the Mexican restaurant chain was shutting down its U.S. locations only after an internal notice appeared on May 21—then the restaurants were closed effective May 22.
Within weeks, the move has turned into a legal fight over pay, benefits, and the timing of layoffs. The chain shuttered all eight of its U.S. restaurants, all located in the Chicago metro area, and it says the decision was difficult—but final.
Guzman Y Gomez said in a public message posted on its website and on social media that it had made the decision to close its U.S. restaurants after “six years of burritos and big dreams in Chicagoland.” The company’s note told customers: “If you’re ever in Australia. Singapore or Japan. come find us – we’ll have your favs waiting for you.”.
The closures are the end of an American push that began in 2020, when the company expanded into the U.S. after being founded in Australia in 2006 by a pair of native New Yorkers. Guzman Y Gomez later opened restaurants in Singapore and Japan in the early-to-mid 2010s. and it planned to broaden its reach across the country in the coming years. The entry point, however, ended up being Chicago—leading to eight locations across the Chicagoland area.
The chain’s announcement came with a blunt rationale about sales momentum and the cost of making the U.S. network work. Co-founder Steven Marks reportedly said in an Australian Securities Exchange announcement that Guzman Y Gomez “was not translating to an improvement in sales momentum.” He added that after spending the last three months in the U.S. he concluded that “this was going to take significantly more time and capital than we had expected.” Marks said that after assessing the trajectory of the current network. the board and he concluded the business was unlikely to deliver the performance needed to justify continued investment of shareholder capital.
That plan did not disappear entirely. Guzman Y Gomez reaffirmed a long-term goal of opening 1,000 Australian restaurants.
While management pointed to business performance. former employees are focused on a different set of stakes: whether the shutdown broke the rules about notice. A class action lawsuit has been filed by former employees with Chicago firm Haseeb Legal after Guzman Y Gomez shut down all eight U.S. locations.
The suit claims the company closed the restaurants without the 60-day notice required by federal and Illinois law. Large text on the Haseeb Legal page reads, “You deserved sixty days. You got zero.” The lawsuit says workers’ first warning came through an internal message posted May 21 on the company’s message platform. That message allegedly said, “After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to exit the US market. This means we will be closing all our restaurants from today.”.
A company spokesperson said the firm is aware of legal action filed in the United States and is confident it “has met all of our legal obligations to our US employees.”
The lawsuit is seeking pay and benefits for up to 60 days for every affected employee—estimated to be more than 500 by the law firm—and it is asking for a trial by jury.
The sequence of dates—May 21 for the internal notice and May 22 for the effective closures—now sits at the center of the dispute, with the company framing the end of its U.S. network as a capital and performance decision, while former workers argue it was carried out too fast under the law.
For customers in the Chicago metro area. the announcement marked an abrupt disappearance of locations that had been part of the brand’s U.S. expansion since 2020. For employees. the shutdown is now being contested in court. with the central question hanging on one thing: whether they were given the 60 days the law requires.
Guzman Y Gomez Chicago restaurants class action lawsuit 60 day notice Illinois law U.S. market exit Mexican restaurant chain employment benefits Steven Marks