A company that runs McDonald’s (MCD) restaurants in Arizona and California will pay $550,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the federal agency that oversees workplace civil rights.
GLC Restaurants, based in Flagstaff, will pay the money to eight young women who were sexually harassed by a male manager at a McDonald’s restaurant in Cordes Junction, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Thursday. McDonald’s was not named in the suit.
The manager allegedly grabbed the teens around the waist, touched their breasts, put his hands in their pockets and rubbed up against them in 2001 and 2002, according to the EEOC lawsuit, filed in federal court in 2005.
The manager had previously worked at a McDonald’s in Camp Verde, where similar incidents occurred, the EEOC said. GLC allegedly knew of the incidents and didn’t take action to stop them from happening again.
“This was the first job experience for many of these young women, some of whom were only 14 years old at the time,” said Michelle Marshall, an EEOC trial attorney. “No one should have to endure sexual harassment to earn a paycheck.”
As part of the settlement, GLC also will have to train employees about harassment. The lawyer for four of the women also will be allowed to apply to the court for $400,000 in legal fees.
There was no answer at a listing for GLC Restaurants Thursday morning.
Amanda Henry, a junior at Northern Arizona University who was one of the victims, said young women and girls need to know they can report inappropriate behavior to their employers, parents and, if needed, the EEOC.
“I am happy that our complaints and our actions against GLC for the last 4 1/2 years will finally lead to changes which should keep something like this from happening again in the future,” Henry said.
The EEOC complaint did not name the manager.