News

EEOC sues southeastern Arby's franchisee over alleged sexual harassment

April 2, 2018

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against the owner of several southeastern U.S. Arby's franchises, Beavers' Inc., for the alleged sexual harassment of a number of teenaged female employees in Atmore, Alabama, the agency said. The EEOC said it filed the suit Friday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. 

The suit charges that 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 alleged that the individual deliberately touched one female employee in a sexual manner and attempted to follow female employees home. The commission said in its suit that the alleged victims and others lodged complaints with supervisors and managers, though the suit said Arby's leadership took no action "for several months until the harasser physically injured one of the victims."

Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The suit was filed after an investigation was completed and the parties 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," EEOC Birmingham District Director Delner Franklin-Thomas said in a release about the suit on the EEOC website. "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."

Beavers' is a Florida corporation that owns and operates 51 Arby's locations in the Florida panhandle, south Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Arby's has not responded to a request for comment.