R & G Endeavors, Inc., a fast-food franchisee doing business as Culver’s Restaurants of Cottage Grove, will pay $261,000 and furnish other relief to settle two cases brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), one involving race, sex and sexual orientation-based harassment in the workplace and another involving disability harassment and pay discrimination, the federal agency announced today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuits, multiple workers endured harassment and discrimination at Culver’s Restaurants of Cottage Grove, Minnesota. Managers and other employees subjected a gay and African American employee to racial and homophobic slurs, including calling him the n-word and the f-slur frequently. They also commented on his body and sex life, among other offensive conduct.

A class of female employees also faced sex harassment at Culver’s, including unwelcome touching, stalker-like behavior, sexual propositions, unwelcome pet names and creepy gifts from adult employees targeting teenage girls.

The EEOC alleged in a second suit that Culver’s Restaurants of Cottage Grove also subjected a worker with an intellectual disability to harassment through frequent name-calling, derogatory language, unfair discipline and hostility, as well as underpaying him compared to other employees. The company failed to address the hostile work environment and discrimination even after receiving complaints, the EEOC alleged.

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits workplace harassment based on an individual’s race, sex, or sexual orientation, and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits harassment and discrimination based on a person’s disability. The EEOC filed the lawsuits in May 2023 (EEOC v. R&G Endeavors, Inc. d/b/a Culver’s of Cottage Grove, Case Nos. 23-cv-1501 (Title VII) and 23-cv-1506 (ADA)) in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota after first attempting to reach pre-litigation settlements through its administrative conciliation process.

The cases were resolved by consent decrees, which include monetary relief totaling $186,000 for the aggrieved individuals in the Title VII case and $75,000 for the injured individual in the ADA case, as well as targeted equitable relief, such as notice to employees of the lawsuits; reporting future complaints to the EEOC; policy changes; and regular trainings for both management and non-management employees.

Source: EEOC

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Minnesota