NEW YORK — Chipotle restaurants across the U.S. are opening later than usual today so workers can attend a meeting about the chain’s recent food safety scares.

The company said stores were opening at 3 p.m. in their local time zones, instead of the usual 11 a.m. Chipotle expects about 50,000 employees to go to more than 400 locations, such as hotel conference rooms, where remarks by company executives will be shown live.

The meeting comes after Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. saw its sales slammed by food scares, including an E. coli outbreak and norovirus cases. In January, sales plunged 36 percent at stores open at least 13 months.

Now the company is plotting a comeback, with its largest marketing campaign yet to start this week.