Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a lawsuit against R Wings R Wild, LLC, doing business as Buffalo Wild Wings of Arkansas, for sex discrimination.
- EEOC has alleged that the employer, which has locations in both Arkansas and Oklahoma, refused to hire a qualified male applicant for a bartender position, telling him that it was looking to hire a female. The agency says the restaurant has refused to hire other male applicants as bartenders, too.
- The suit requests back pay, compensation for lost benefits, and compensatory and punitive damages.
Dive Insight:
Sex discrimination violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, whether undertaken against men or women, and claims from men have accounted for an increasing number of allegations in recent years.
In a suit filed against Sterling Jewelers in March, 250 women and men accused the jewelry retail chain of sex discrimination and sexual harassment. Although women were largely the target of the alleged sexual misconduct, current and former male employees joined the women in alleging that the retailer maintained a culture in which sexual misconduct and discrimination were allowed to persist.
To comply with Title VII, employers must ensure that they refrain from taking any adverse employment actions against an applicant or employee because of his or her sex. This includes failing to stop harassment on the basis of sex.