McDonald’s is facing a fresh legal battle launched by the fast food workers union for allegedly refusing to grant entitled rest breaks to 250,000 employees across Australia.

Workers across nearly 1000 current and former McDonald’s locations were allegedly not informed of their rest break entitlements. Some workers were allegedly offered free soft drinks or short toilet breaks instead of their entitled 10-minute break.

Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) secretary Gerard Dwyer said the union had tried to address the issue with the fast-food franchise, but that it had refused to admit any wrongdoing.

“It’s simply not believable that these breaks weren’t denied on purpose,” Dwyer said. “McDonald’s shouldn’t have to be dragged through the Federal Court for workers to receive their most basic entitlements.”

The legal claim seeks $250 million in compensation plus penalties against 400 McDonald’s operators. It is the 16th in a string of other existing Federal Court claims the union has against McDonald’s and 14 franchisees.

Workers covered under the Fast Food Award are entitled to an uninterrupted 10-minute paid break when working four or more hours.

In a statement, McDonald’s said it highly valued its employees and their contribution to the success of the company, and it intended to fully defend the claim.

“McDonald’s believes its restaurants complied with applicable instruments, provided rest breaks to employees and were consistent with historic working arrangements,” the company said in a statement.

“Those arrangements have been known to the SDA for many years. The manner of taking breaks has not been challenged or raised by the SDA as a matter of concern throughout successive enterprise bargaining processes for new industrial agreements.