Every day across the south workers are killed on the job, stolen from, discriminated against, or sexually harassed. Sometimes the employers are caught. These are last week’s stories, this is Boss Watch.
Alabama Discriminators
Quality Restaurant Concepts, owner and operator of approximately 60 Applebee’s-branded restaurants across the southeastern U.S., will pay $270,000 and provide other relief to settle a sexual harassment, constructive discharge and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the company failed to take appropriate action to address a sexually hostile work environment that harmed at least six female employees beginning in approximately April 2023. The EEOC said the general manager of QRC’s restaurant in Chelsea, Alabama, harassed female employees through unwelcome sexual comments, advances, offensive conduct, and physical contact. He and other management failed to stop other male employees and customers from doing the same.
Despite receiving complaints of this conduct and the general manager’s prior history of sexually harassing a minor female employee at another of QRC’s restaurants, the company failed to take appropriate action and allowed the general manager to continue working closely with young female employees. The company further failed to take appropriate action when a minor female employee complained about sexual harassment from a much older adult bartender. Multiple female workers subjected to this environment felt compelled to leave their jobs.
The alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.
Tennessee Discriminators
Magnera Corporation, formerly known as Berry Global, Inc., a Fortune 500 global manufacturer and marketer of plastic packaging products headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, will pay $130,000 and provide other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, in January 2022, Berry Global discriminated against an employee at its Old Hickory, Tennessee location by requiring her to produce a doctor’s release clearing her to return to work after she took approved personal time off. Although the company’s onsite certified physician assistant cleared the employee to return to work, the human resources manager demanded the employee complete family medical leave paperwork even though she had not requested medical leave. The company fired the employee when she could not produce the requested paperwork, the EEOC said.
Later, during her deposition, the human resources manager testified that it was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended, as well as the company’s attendance policy to require the employee to produce a doctor’s release clearing her to return to work after she took approved personal time off.
Such alleged conduct by an employer violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability, and requires reasonable accommodation absent undue hardship. The EEOC filed its suit in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.
Besides monetary damages for the employee, the four-year consent decree settling the suit enjoins Magnera Corporation from engaging in any employment practices which discriminate against an employee on the basis of their disability in the future. The company must engage in the required interactive process to discuss reasonable accommodations as defined by the ADA. The company is also enjoined from terminating any employee for disability-related absence without considering a reasonable accommodation.
The decree also requires Magnera Corporation to conduct annual training for its human resources personnel and supervisory staff involved in employment decisions at the Old Hickory, Tennessee facility on measures to prevent disability discrimination, including an explanation of the ADA, its prohibition against discrimination based on employee’s disability or perceived disability, and responding to requests for accommodation.
Texas Discriminators
Hatch Trick, Inc., a Chick-fil-A franchisee operating multiple locations in Austin, violated federal law by refusing to reasonably accommodate an employee’s request to refrain from working on Saturdays in observance of her Sabbath day and instead fired her, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the employee, who managed Hatch Trick’s delivery drivers at one of its Austin locations, is a member of the United Church of God denomination, which observes a Saturday Sabbath. In adherence to her religious faith and practice, she requested no scheduled hours on Saturdays, and she disclosed the need during her job interview. Although Hatch Trick initially honored the employee’s request to refrain from Saturday work, after several months the company changed its position and demanded that she work on Saturdays, the EEOC said.
The EEOC’s lawsuit stated that the employee made additional requests for religious accommodation, meeting with company officials on several occasions to discuss her needs and suggested a number of alternatives which would have allowed her to remain in her position while adhering to her Sabbath observance.
Hatch Trick rejected all options for the employee to remain in her managerial job while abstaining from Saturday work, instead telling her that she must move to a non-managerial delivery driver position which entitled her to lower pay, reduced benefits and fewer hours. When the employee declined to accept the driver position, the company discharged her, according to the lawsuit.
“The duty under federal law to provide reasonable accommodation of religion reflects an acknowledgement by our society of the importance of faith in workers’ everyday lives and an abiding respect for those who observe religious practices as an expression of that faith,” said acting EEOC Dallas Regional Attorney Ronald L. Phillips. “Just as adherence to the dictates of one’s own conscience is not optional, so too an employer’s duty under Title VII is obligatory, and the EEOC stands ready to enforce that legal duty.”
The type of conduct charged in the EEOC’s complaint violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination because of religion and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation for an employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs or practices unless doing so would cause an undue hardship on the business. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.