A restaurant commenting that "old white guys" need not apply there has now cost its parent Darden Restaurants nearly $3 million to settling a federal lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Seasons 52, which has 41 locations around the country, will be required to pay a $2.85 million settlement and hold new training for all hiring managers regarding "age-neutral and non-discriminatory recruiting, interviewing, and hiring; and how to avoid stereotypes in hiring and in the workplace, including ageism and age stereotypes," per the Sentinel.
The complaint against Seasons 52 and Orlando-based Darden was initiated by a lawsuit alleging that the restaurant would not hire Anthony Scornavacca, then 52, and Hugo Alfaro, then 42, because of their age, the Sentinel said.
The EEOC charged that it found at one point last year 254 people claimed that they were treated with bias, the newspaper wrote. The commission claimed that one manager bluntly said Seasons 52 didn't employ "old white guys."
In the settlement, though, Seasons 52 will not admit any liability and continues to deny the allegations, the Sentinel said.
An EEOC statement said that a consent decree calls for Darden to set up a claims process that will identify and compensate those affected individuals age 40 and older who applied to Seasons 52 for front-of-the-house or back-of-the-house positions at 35 Seasons 52 restaurants but were denied employment on the basis of age.
"As we commemorate May as Older Americans Month, we should be mindful that age discrimination continues to keep too many older, experienced American workers out of the workforce - many of whom are not working as a matter of choice, but as a matter of need," EEOC acting chair Victoria A. Lipnic said in a statement.
David Seltzer, an attorney with the EEOC office in Miami, told the Orlando Sentinel that discrimination cases are often hard to prove but Seasons 52 personnel continued to make alleged statements to applicants indicating age.
"Seasons 52 interviews across locations repeatedly told applicants things like 'We don't hire people over 40,' 'Seasons 52 girls are younger and fresh' or asked them for their date of birth, high school graduation date or a driver's license," he said.
The EEOC said the settlement ended a three-year legal case where the agency first filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida after first trying to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
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