The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the settlement of a sex discrimination class action lawsuit
for $1,025,000 and far reaching injunctive relief against Lawry's
Restaurants, Inc., doing business as Lawry's the Prime Rib, Five
Crowns, and Tam O'Shanter Inn (Lawry's), for allegedly failing to hire
men into food server positions for decades. Lawry's is a
California-based corporation operating restaurants in Las Vegas,
Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Corona del Mar, Calif.
In
its lawsuit, the EEOC charged Lawry's with maintaining a longstanding
companywide policy of hiring only women for server positions in
violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits
sex-based discrimination. The EEOC's involvement was initiated by a
charge of discrimination filed in March 2003 by a male applicant in Las
Vegas.
The EEOC filed suit on March 31, 2006, in the
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (CV 06-1963
DDP (PLAx)) after investigating the charge of discrimination, finding
merit, and first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement out of
court. In investigating the case, the EEOC found that Lawry's policy
barring men from being hired as servers had existed since 1938, despite
the enactment of Title VII a quarter century later. While, Lawry's
claimed the policy was based on tradition, the EEOC found the policy
adversely affected a class of men on the basis of sex.
Under the consent decree resolving the
case, Lawry's has agreed to change its longstanding policies and
practices, and to actively promote the hiring of men into server
positions. The three-year decree, pending approval before the Hon.
Judge Dean D. Pregerson, requires Lawry's to:
- Provide monetary relief and develop a class fund in the amount of $500,000;
- Hire a claims administrator to identify and distribute the monies to the class of individuals;
- Pay over $300,000 to institute an advertising campaign regarding the hiring of food servers;
- Pay $225,000 for training all of its employees on compliance with Title VII and related laws;
- Revise its hiring and other policies and practices to comply with Title VII;
- Appoint an equal employment opportunity officer to ensure compliance with the decree;
- Report to the EEOC on the progress under the terms of the decree; and
- Post a Notice at all of its restaurants in at least three locations frequented by employees.