Dive Brief:
- River’s Edge Bar and Grill, a restaurant in Gibsonton, Florida, agreed to pay $65,000 to settle allegations by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that a co-owner sexually harassed female servers and that a server was fired because she complained, EEOC announced March 2.
- Per the complaint in EEOC v. Rivers Edge Enterprises, LLC, the co-owner allegedly engaged in sexually harassing behavior toward a female server, including by propositioning her, showing her pornography and touching her without her consent. He also allegedly behaved similarly to female employees, according to the lawsuit.
- The other two owners witnessed the harassment and failed to take action to stop it, the lawsuit alleged. After complaining multiple times to one of them, the female server said she was “going to do something about” the behavior and was fired, according to EEOC.
Dive Insight:
EEOC sued River’s Edge for allegedly subjecting the female server and a class of female employees to a sexually hostile work environment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC also alleged the restaurant violated Title VII by firing the female server in retaliation for complaining about the harassment.
River’s Edge denied the allegations, a Feb. 26 consent decree said. The restaurant did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
“Employers cannot look the other way when sexual harassment is taking place,” EEOC Tampa Field Officer Director Tamra Schweiberger stated in a media release.
Under federal law, “company owners have an obligation to implement safeguards in their workplaces that prevent and address harassment,” EEOC Regional Attorney Kristen Foslid stressed. In this case, “unchecked authority resulted in harm that could have been prevented,” she added.
The court-approved settlement requires the restaurant’s three owners, who are brothers, to undergo live, one-hour in-person training annually for the three years the consent decree is in effect.
According to the consent decree, the training is to be conducted by an outside monitor and must include instruction on managers’ responsibilities under Title VII, as well as on how to recognize and take preventative action against sexual harassment and retaliation.
Additionally, the restaurant must revise its sexual harassment policy to include a formal, written procedure for addressing sexual harassment allegations. The policy must also provide examples of prohibited conduct, which includes both verbal behavior, such as making “jokes, insults and innuendos based on sex” or “comments or questions on a person’s body or sex life,” and nonverbal behavior like “standing too close or brushing against a person’s body,” the consent decree said.
The $65,000 payment includes $45,000 for the server who was fired and $20,000 to another class member.
When leaders face allegations of misconduct, it often falls on the HR department to chart a course forward, sources recently told HR Dive. The task may be difficult, but it’s not something HR professionals can shirk, given that HR is responsible for ensuring policies and legal obligations apply equally to all members of an organization, a consultant said.