A Minneapolis area Culver’s franchisee settled a harassment case with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
R&G Endeavors, the franchisee of Culver’s Restaurants of Cottage Grove, Minnesota, agreed to pay $261,000 for reported harassment on the basis of an employee’s race and sexual orientation and other offenses. The EEOC filed two lawsuits against the franchisee in May 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
One complaint claims since 2020, staff members including two managers used racial and homophobic slurs against a gay Black employee repeatedly. One of the managers reportedly referred to the employee as the store’s “adopted African child.”
Other employees also made inappropriate comments about the employee’s sexuality.
The lawsuit states the franchisee allowed this harassment to take place, because the employee reported the offenses to managers “and asked them to address it.” But, the EEOC claims, R&G Endeavors did nothing to fix or prevent the problem.
R&G “also failed to maintain adequate policies against workplace harassment and failed to adequately train its employees about workplace harassment and how to report it,” the lawsuit states.
The employee reportedly left the job “as a result of the intolerable working conditions,” according to the lawsuit.
R&G staff members also harassed female employees by subjecting them to “unwelcome and offensive physical contact and sexual comments and propositions,” the lawsuit stated. The female employees, who were as young as 14 years old, reported the issues to management.
The second lawsuit, which the EEOC also filed in May 2023, states R&G failed to prevent or stop harassment against an employee with disabilities starting in 2018.
The commission claimed R&G “created a hostile workplace” by belittling or shouting at the employee, including using slurs related to his disability against him. The employee, his family and his job coach reported the harassment to management, according to the lawsuit.
In addition to the inappropriate comments other employees made, the employee with a disability made “among the lowest” hourly wage at the store, despite working there for six years, which was longer than “most employees,” the lawsuit stated. Only three employees out of the restaurant’s 45 made less money than he did, and those three were new hires.
R&G gave the employee with a disability smaller and less frequent raises than employees without disabilities, the lawsuit stated.
The reported misconduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits workplace harassment.
The EEOC stated that the fines provide monetary relief to the individuals impacted by the harassment.
The commission filed a similar lawsuit against a Subway franchisee in Utah in May. The 20-unit operator allegedly allowed Justin Nielson, the company’s operations and marketing director, to assault and harass a 16-year-old employee on several occasions in 2020.
A Taco Bell operator was on the receiving end of an EEOC lawsuit in March. The commission alleged the Michigan franchisee, Teamlyders, allowed a female employee to be sexually harassed and fired her when she reported the misconduct.
The EEOC has sued several entities for sexual harassment and gender discrimination this year following the appointment of Acting Chair Andrea Lucas in January.