The California-based Italian restaurant chain II Fornaio faces a lawsuit after allegedly tolerating sexual harassment of male employees against female workers and retaliating against those who complained about the issue, SiliconValley.com reported.
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed the complaint but did not provide further details as to the specific restaurant involved or the number of female employees who were allegedly harassed, the report said.
According to SiliconValley.com, the lawsuit originated from the allegations of discrimination that a female employee filed 30 days earlier.
The said female employee, who started working in II Fornaio as a hostess in 2017, continued her job until May 2019, when she was forced to resign due to “ongoing sexual harassment by a manager and co-workers,” the EEOC lawsuit stated, according to the news outlet.
The EEOC further noted that other female employees also complained of similar experiences, such as being groped around the buttocks and genitals and being exposed to pornography on cellphone screens.
Employer’s alleged failure to act
When employees complained to the management about their unpleasant experiences in the workplace, the supervisors allegedly struck back by reducing the number of shifts the women were supposed to work, assigning employees to do more complex tasks, or even denying workers their time off and issuing them threats, the EEOC said.
The lawsuit further stated...
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