Gay, Black Applebee’s Cook Was Told to Ignore Co-Workers’ Slurs
metroweekly.compress release from the EEOC. According to the EEOC complaint, the employee, who is Black and gay, was subjected to near-constant abuse while working at the restaurant, with the two co-workers uttering racial and homophobic slurs and epithets loud enough so he could hear them.
They also allegedly cracked homophobic jokes about his sexual orientation. The worker claimed he repeatedly heard the “n-word” throughout his employment, and one of the alleged harassers regularly wore Confederate flag paraphernalia while working at the restaurant.When the worker complained to management about the harassment from his co-workers, he was told his co-workers were “just joking around” and advised to “ignore” them.
The store manager claimed to have conducted an investigation into the harassment charges, but Applebee’s has no record of such an investigation ever having occurred.Despite complaining to various levels of management at the restaurant, no action was taken against the other employees.
Eventually, he attempted to contact Neighborhood Restaurant Partners Florida (NRP), LLC, which runs, owns and operates the Applebee’s in Plant City.
