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.

"Upon learning of these allegations, which date from 2023 and years prior, we conducted a thorough internal investigation and found these claims to be entirely without merit. 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 to realize that because we were Latinos, we were being forced to do all these kinds of duties. We started noting the discrimination," he said.

"We were afraid of punishment for complaining," said Penafiel. "We want the authorities to listen to us and to realize the conditions that people are working under at these places."

According to the complaint, workers also alleged Hispanic workers were required to use a sign-out system in order to use the bathroom and that management policed the time they spent in the bathroom.

"There were many times I had to hold it for hours because they would note down the time you went in," Penafiel said. "I had to go to the clinic to a urologist because I started experiencing incontinence, as I had to hold it for a long time and ended up getting infections."

The lawsuit claimed non-Hispanic workers were allowed to use the bathroom whenever they wanted and for however long, often with the temp workers expected to fill in on work lines for direct hires when they took longer breaks or were using the bathroom.

"On several occasions, a HelloFresh manager menaced Hispanic workers with a baseball bat to limit their time in the bathroom and force them to return to work on HelloFresh's production line," the complaint alleges. "HelloFresh's bathroom policy was so restrictive that several Hispanic workers were forced to urinate on themselves and continue to work because their supervisors denied them permission to use the bathroom."

It added, "defendants' bathroom policies were so restrictive that at least one member of the Hispanic Employee Class brought multiple pairs of underwear and fresh clothes to work because she was forced to urinate on herself on several occasions."

The complaint alleges instances of workers grabbing female employees' body parts, having managers show workers pornography and photos of their genitalia, using loaves of bread and cucumbers to simulate sex acts, and regularly propositioning female workers for sex.

"HelloFresh supervisors physically assaulted and battered several Hispanic employees during their employment at HelloFresh," the lawsuit alleges, arguing the alleged assaults were done in view of other Hispanic employees with the intent of inducing fear of not following supervisors' directives.

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.

"When people would raise complaints about what they were suffering, what supervisors were doing, they were bounced back and forth between HelloFresh and the staffing agencies with very little resolution, so there was really no place for people to go with these complaints," said Lauren Herman, an attorney with Make the Road New Jersey and one of the plaintiff's attorneys in the lawsuit.

"I think this lawsuit really illustrates what happens when you have effectively a two-tier labor force in the economy where we have the kind of aggressive immigration enforcement that's happening right now that leaves people feeling so vulnerable that employers can hold their immigration status over their heads in this way and use that as a tool to exploit them," said Michael Scimone, a partner at Outten and Golden representing the workers in the lawsuit.

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 HelloFresh's verification system. They also claimed no workers ever complained about the work environment at HelloFresh.

The requests from each staffing agency to dismiss claims alleging violation of the New Jersey Human Trafficking Prevention, Protection, and Treatment Act were granted, though the judge allowed the plaintiffs to file an amended complaint to specify individually named plaintiffs or defendants.

In December 2024, the US Department of Labor announced an investigation into a different staffing agency at a HelloFresh facility in Illinois over allegations that migrant children were working at the facility. HelloFresh noted it terminated its relationship with the agency upon learning about the allegations.

"Our frontline workforce is the foundation of our company, and ensuring a safe, fair, and respectful workplace is our highest priority," HelloFresh said in an email. "HelloFresh maintains robust anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies governed by our Employee Handbook and Global Code of Ethics. They are backed by mandatory training and multiple reporting channels, including a 24/7 confidential hotline for anonymous complaints. We take every concern seriously and remain fully dedicated to upholding a culture of integrity and accountability."