According to The Oregonian, the popular restaurant chain, Ruby Tuesday’s, is being accused of discriminating against their male employees.
The claim was made when it was noticed that a store in Park City, Utah only hired female workers for summer positions. In response to the restaurant’s decision, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a federal lawsuit in Eugene earlier this week. While the case particularly focuses on the events that enfolded in Utah, they are also accusing the store of the same practices in 8 other states, which include; Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nevada..
The EEOC alleges that Ruby Tuesday advertised temporary positions for this particular store back in 2013, but the chain expressed a strong preference for female applicants, and did not hire any males because of their sex.
If the lawsuit is successful, then the restaurant would be unable to prevent males from being hired based on their gender. The company’s wrongful employment practices will have to be replaced, and it was also reported that the restaurant will have to pay losses suffered by two male workers who were denied jobs back in the summer of 2013.
“It’s rare to see an explicit example of sex discrimination like Ruby Tuesday’s internal job announcement,” noted EEOC San Francisco Regional Attorney William R. Tamayo, according to a statement he gave to the on EEOC website. “This suit is a cautionary tale to employers that sex-based employment decisions are rarely justified, and are not consistent with good business judgment.”
Not all restaurants, but a good amount of them do usually hire a majority of women as wait staff, but there does need to be some balance and hiring of both genders. It is unsure if this was a policy that the restaurant chain based out of Tennessee, or whether the hiring managers purposely hired all females.
Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr
