Manager asks ‘Why can’t you drop this’ when gay waiter reports harassment, feds say
A waiter told his manager he could no longer tolerate the insults and sexual harassment he had endured from a co-worker for months — then he was fired, federal officials said.
The Memphis restaurant now owes the waiter $60,000, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in an April 30 news release.
The company agreed to settle but denies wrongdoing.
The waiter, an openly gay man, had been working at Amerigo Italian Restaurant for roughly two months when another waiter started calling him homophobic slurs, federal officials said in a complaint filed in September 2023.
After multiple incidents, the man complained to his general manager, who told the employee he would fire the other man if it happened again, according to the lawsuit.
Contrary to the company’s policy, it did not investigate the report of a hostile environment and didn’t speak with anyone who may have witnessed the harassment, federal officials said.
From January to October 2021, this continued, and it started affecting other workers, according to the waiter.
“Management’s lack of remedial action caused other employees to avoid working shifts when the harasser was scheduled for fear of being targeted based on their sex/sexual orientation and (the accused harasser) oft-expressed disapproval of people who do not conform to gender stereotypes,” officials said in the lawsuit.
The waiter went to management again and said he couldn’t continue working alongside the man, requesting to be moved to another shift or another one of the restaurant’s locations.
Federal officials said the general manager asked him, “Why can’t you drop this?” and “What do you want me to do?” before denying those requests.
He told the waiter he wouldn’t fire the other employee, officials said.
The next day, the waiter said he was scheduled to work a shift with the accused harasser and tried to get someone else to cover his shift but could not. The general manager fired him that day on the grounds of “no call, no show,” which the waiter contested, according to the complaint.
“Three days after he notified management that he could no longer suffer such abuse due to the impact it was having on him mentally and physically,” the restaurant terminated him, federal officials said.
The EEOC said this violated the Civil Rights Act, but the restaurant objects.
“Amerigo has and will continue to promote a robust policy of inclusion for all communities, including the LGBTQ+ community, and is welcoming of all applicants and employees who want to be part of our team,” a spokesperson told McClatchy News in a statement. “As an employee-owned company that is committed to the needs of every staff member, Amerigo has always maintained and promoted an open-door policy of reporting any concerns among our staff.
“We will continue to do so through our ongoing zero-tolerance policy on discrimination and harassment, as well as annualized training to foster an inclusive, healthy, productive and professional workplace providing a comfortable dining experience to our guests,” the statement continued. “While we adamantly deny any wrongdoing, we are pleased to have resolved the unjustifiable and categorically false claims brought against us in this matter.”
In addition to the $60,000 payout, the company agreed to “revise and distribute their anti-harassment and anti-retaliation policies, post a notice in the workplace informing employees of the settlement and provide specialized training to all supervisors, managers and employees,” according to the EEOC.
This story was originally published May 1, 2024 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Manager asks ‘Why can’t you drop this’ when gay waiter reports harassment, feds say."