A Long Island location of what is touted as the “country’s largest casual Mexican restaurant chain,” has just settled an EEOC racial harassment lawsuit which, as usual, alleged that the N-word was used.
Apparently, an African-American chef at the restaurant:
“was subjected to frequent verbal harassment and offensive language by co-workers. The harassment included the regular and open use of racial slurs such as ‘n—–r’ toward [him], as well as calling him other offensive terms like “black bean.” … The complaint states that one employee referred to [him] as ‘n—–r’ multiple times a week.”
To make it worse, the EEOC alleged that management “was aware of and sometimes present for the harassment, [but] it failed to stop the abuse or to discipline any of the harassers.”
The EEOC Regional Attorney said, upon the suit’s filing, that “The EEOC will file lawsuits like this to make sure that the clock is not turned backwards in any workplace.”
The EEOC’s new press release quotes him further as noting that “Unfortunately, racial harassment is all too common in the restaurant industry.”
As we saw in prior posts, more than just racial harassment plagues the the restaurant industry – sexual harassment must also be rooted out there.
