Dive Brief:
- Two operators of Detroit-area Taco Bell restaurants agreed to pay a total of $100,000 to settle claims that a coach sexually harassed female employees, some of whom were minors, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Thursday.
- EEOC filed its lawsuit against the firms in February 2025. It alleged that an HR manager interviewed four employees who confirmed the coach’s conduct but waited two months after the interviews to terminate him. This constituted a failure to take “prompt and remedial action” upon receiving the employees’ complaints, EEOC claimed.
- Both of the operating firms agreed to conduct annual sexual harassment and assault training with management-level and HR employees, among other measures, as part of a three-year consent decree. Per the terms of the agreement, the defendants did not admit liability for any associated claims.
Dive Insight:
The settlement resolves some of the claims raised by plaintiffs, but an assistant manager who reported the coach’s harassment filed separate harassment and retaliation claims that she will continue to litigate separately, EEOC said in a press release.
EEOC has made anti-harassment enforcement one of several priorities under Chair Andrea Lucas. Last May, the agency cited the Taco Bell employees’ lawsuit as part of its broader work in this area and said that, at the time, it had recovered more than $1.2 million in remedies for sexual-harassment victims since January 2025.
Restaurant industry employers have a particular duty to protect young workers and act promptly and decisively in the event that they receive sexual harassment complaints, Kenneth Bird, an EEOC regional attorney, said in the agency’s release.
“Entering the workforce can already be a daunting experience for a teenager; sexual harassment should not be a part of that experience,” Bird said.
Lucas and EEOC’s Republican majority have made several internal changes in recent weeks, including voting to rescind a Biden-era workplace harassment guidance document and to require majority commissioner approval of most agency litigation. Notably, the latter change would not affect EEOC’s general counsel’s ability to commence cases that involve enforcement of a settlement or consent decree.
