Feds Sue Operator Of Local Arby’s For Teen Sexual Harassment

March 31, 2018

Beavers’ Inc. violated federal law when it subjected several teenage female employees at an AtmoreĀ  Arby’s restaurant to sexual harassment at its location, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed Friday.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, in May 2016, Arby’s hired a team leader trainee with a known history of sexual harassment who repeatedly pressured young female employees to have sex with him, and regularly used sexually graphic language to describe sexual acts he sought to perform on female employees and customers. The EEOC also alleges that the harasser deliberately touched one female employee in an unwelcome and sexual manner, and attempted to follow female employees home.

The EEOC further contends that these employees and others complained about the harassment up the chain of command to supervisors and managers, but Arby’s took no action for several months until the harasser physically injured one of the victims.

Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination which is prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama it completed an investigation and first attempted to reach a pre-litigation settlement. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for the victims, including compensatory and punitive damages, and injunctive relief.

“Federal anti-discrimination laws exist to protect workers from this kind of abuse,” said EEOC Birmingham District Director Delner Franklin-Thomas. “The EEOC will continue to aggressively pursue remedies for victims of sexual harassment in the workplace, particularly young, vulnerable workers. This kind of misconduct adversely affects not only the harassment victims themselves, but also the entire workforce, when timely and effective corrective action is not taken.”

Marsha Rucker, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Birmingham District, said, “Employers have an obligation to provide a workplace free from sexual harassment, and that obligation is not met solely by having a written policy. Employers must take complaints of sexual harassment seriously and act promptly to stop harassment of their workers.”

Beavers’ is a Florida corporation which owns and operates 51 Arby’s locations in the Florida panhandle, south Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana, according to the EEOC. The EEOC’s Birmingham District consists of Alabama, Mississippi (except 17 northern counties) and the Florida Panhandle.

Comments

12 Responses to “Feds Sue Operator Of Local Arby’s For Teen Sexual Harassment”

  1. Whit on April 2nd, 2018 5:05 pm

    @ROBERT it said in the article he had a known history of sexual harassment. Known to who? Maybe the person who hired him at Arby’s didn’t know about his prior history? There are a lot of factors here and as we are just observers who aren’t directly involved in this matter who are we to say what happened or who knew what. I am BY NO MEANS siding with the guy who did the sexual harassing. Other articles have quoted his texts to the women and they are dispicable but also in every other article I read it said he was hired as a team leader trainee and then fired due to this not that they just kept him hired and moved him to a new location so where did you read that? Because if that were true that would be a whole different story.

  2. Don Neese on April 1st, 2018 4:49 pm

    @Mike

    Actually, violence may be the only answer. Violence creates fear. Fear is the second greatest motivator or deterrent there is. Fear of parents, fear of punishment, fear of the law, fear of God.
    Without a violent answer America would have been taken over by an invading country years ago.
    Today’s culture reminds me of God’s description of the wicked…”there is no fear of God before their eyes”
    Violence creates fear!!!

    Oh, the greatest motivator is …..Love.

  3. Nod on April 1st, 2018 3:16 pm

    “DITTO”, TO ALL EXCEPT MIKE.

  4. ROBERT on April 1st, 2018 10:39 am

    What makes me so angry is this jerk had a known history for this behavior and Arbys kept him employed and just transferred him to a new victim location to continue. Why wasn’t he punished for this the first time he was caught???? Shame on Arbys….

  5. Trocarman on March 31st, 2018 5:42 pm

    Just more bad publicity for Atmore. The guy doing the harassment should be arrested, no bond. He should receive the maximum sentence.

  6. mike on March 31st, 2018 4:50 pm

    the key word in this is “him”. the guy himself needs punishment. in addition of course to every higher up that let it go on.

  7. anne 1of2 on March 31st, 2018 1:14 pm

    God bless these women. This will be the tip of the iceberg for sure. It takes guts to come forward and more guts to fight the chain of command when one is afraid of being fired. Call the top of the corporation and never mail them an original copy of anything! They will try to threaten you to do so. Been there, kept the original.

  8. David Huie Green on March 31st, 2018 11:54 am

    REGARDING:
    ” the harasser deliberately touched one female employee in an unwelcome and sexual manner”

    And he still has that hand?

    Girls in Atmore must be more tolerant than Century girls.

    David for better people

  9. MIke on March 31st, 2018 11:09 am

    Violence is no solution to anything – you just lowered yourself to the same level they are except in a different subject.

  10. Grand Locust on March 31st, 2018 9:42 am

    The Arby commercials tell us that they “have the meat”. When young girls are treated like meat in a company work environment, they should be punished. The name they chose for their corporate name also raises some questions about why that name was chosen. Young kids starting their work careers should not be subjected to this alleged environment.

  11. Janet on March 31st, 2018 8:54 am

    If found guilty, this supervisor should get more than just fired!

  12. Anne on March 31st, 2018 7:33 am

    Sounds to me like somebody needs a good old fashioned butt whuppin’.
    Could be the whole ‘chain of command’ there and higher needs to go to the woodshed then taken to court.
    Daddy and Granddaddy wouldn’t have waited one minute to deal with that pervert and what must have been friends.
    New times don’t mean old methods don’t still work.