New York Paralegal Blog

Manager Harassed Numerous Female Workers, Including Teens, and Retaliated Against Victims Who Complained ALBUQUERQUE -- Sonic Drive-In of Los Lunas, Ltd. and B&B Consultants, owners of a Sonic restaurant in Los Lunas, N.M., have agreed to settle a sex discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for $2 million, the agency announced today. The EEOC’s lawsuit, EEOC v. Sonic Drive-In of Los Lunas Ltd and B&B Consultants Inc., 09-CV-953 WPJ/ACT, charged that Robert Gomez, then a manager of and limited partner in the Los Lunas Sonic, subjected a class of women, including teenagers, to sexual harassment, including sexual comments and innuendo as well as unwanted touching.  The EEOC’s suit also alleged that women who asked Gomez to stop harassing them or complained about their work environment were subjected to retaliation in the terms and conditions of their employment, primarily by reducing their hours....

Teen-aged Female Carhops Were Routinely Abused by Male Managers, Federal Agency Charged HOUSTON – Two Sonic Drive-In franchises in the Kingwood-Humble area with common ownership and management will pay $55,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC had charged that S.D.I. of Kingwood, doing business as the Kingwood Sonic Drive-In, and S.D.I. of Lee Rd., doing business as the Lee Road Sonic Drive-In, violated federal law by routinely subjecting teenaged female employees to abuse by a manager and others, including threatening one young worker with a knife. The EEOC’s suit said that the franchises’ primary owner promoted a young, unqualified family member to consecutively higher management positions within the restaurants and allowed him to use his position of power to sexually harass the teens starting in 2006. The EEOC also contended that this manager permitted and encou...

ATLANTA – SDI Athens East, LLC, doing business as Sonic and Tomco Management, LLC, will pay $70,000 to settle a sexual discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The federal agency had charged that a the store manager of a Sonic drive-in restaurant located in the eastern part of Athens, Ga., subjected a female carhop to a barrage of sexually charged comments and repeated sexual overtures. The EEOC further asserted that the manager subjected the carhop to unwelcome touching that became increasingly menacing and ultimately forced her to resign. The EEOC first filed the suit on July 2, 2008 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.