Dive Brief:
- A franchisee for restaurant chain Slim Chickens agreed to pay $300,000 to settle sexual harassment claims in one of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s first confirmed actions since the end of the longest-ever federal government shutdown.
- EEOC alleged that Arkansas-based Simply Slims ignored two harassment complaints against a shift manager on or before April 2022. The conduct allegedly continued unchecked, and four additional young female workers made similar complaints within the span of a few months, according to the commission.
- EEOC’s complaint alleged violations to Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Title I of the 1991 Civil Rights Act. Under a two-year consent decree between the parties, Simply Slims agreed to revise and distribute its sexual harassment policy and provide relevant training to all employees. The company denied the allegations.
Dive Insight:
The settlement marks a return to the commission’s pre-shutdown operations, during which it will have a newly replenished quorum for the first time during the second Trump administration.
During a presentation to attendees at the American Bar Association’s annual labor and employment law conference last week, Kalpana Kotagal, EEOC’s lone Democratic commissioner, said the agency’s Republican majority would move “fairly quickly” to shift its antiharassment enforcement.
Specifically, the majority seeks to set aside its Biden-era harassment guidance, Kotagal said, which identified examples of gender-identity discrimination under Title VII like denial of access to bathrooms or other sex-segregated facilities consistent with a person’s gender identity. Such language conflicts with President Donald Trump’s January executive order directing federal agencies to drop all references to the concept of gender identity.
EEOC’s litigation activity trended downward in 2025, which observers have in part attributed to the agency’s lack of a quorum. But sex-based discrimination remained a frequent enforcement target, including cases that also involved discrimination on the basis of pregnancy.
In addition to EEOC’s existing pursuit of sex discrimination cases, there may be other factors driving the agency’s pursuit of cases like the one against Simply Slims. Officials quoted in the commission’s press release said that EEOC is taking note of the challenges facing younger workers — like those who complained of harassment at Simply Slims — entering the U.S. workforce.
“As young people step into today’s work environment, many continue to experience harassment,” Faye Williams, an EEOC regional attorney, said in the release. “This case sends a clear message to employers: the EEOC is steadfast in its commitment to eliminating discrimination and ensuring that all workers are protected from harassment in the workplace.”
