There could be costly consequences for not staying compliant with federal anti-discrimination regulations. Find out which rules apply to your restaurant and why you should structure your policies to meet them.
If your restaurant employs 15 or more employees, you are covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), which bars discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy or national origin.. You are also covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which protects against discrimination on the basis of a disability and imposes a duty to reasonably accommodate applicants or employees with a disability. If your restaurant employs 20 or more workers, you are covered by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which bans discrimination on the basis of age and protects employees 40 years of age or older. These laws are enforced through the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and can serve as the basis for civil lawsuits against employers.
Much like sexual harassment claims, the restaurant industry is often on the EEOC and plaintiffs’ attorneys’ radar when it comes to discrimination claims under these statutes. In one case in Maryland, a restaurant paid $1.3 million to settle claims of race discrimination for refusing to hire African Americans for front-of-house positions. A well-known national restaurant chain was sued by the EEOC for disability discrimination for allegedly refusing to...
Robinson & Cole LLP has added the former chief of the Massachusetts attorney general's office False Claims Division to bolster its capacity to help steer clients through investigations, enforce...