Texas Roadhouse Being Sued for Age Discrimination
Posted on December 26, 2011
Source: eeoc.com
BOSTON – Texas Roadhouse, a national, Kentucky-based restaurant chain, has engaged in a nationwide pattern or practice of age discrimination in hiring hourly, “front of the house” employees, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently announced. Apparently, the restaurant has discriminated against older workers for public, visible positions, such as servers, hosts, and bartenders, by failing to hire them because of their age.
The EEOC alleged that Texas Roadhouse has hired significantly few “front of the house” employees 40 or older in age. In addition, Texas Roadhouse allegedly instructed its managers to hire younger job applicants. For example, Texas Roadhouse emphasized youth when training managers about hiring employees for its restaurants. All of the images of employees in its training and employment manuals are of young people.
The Commission also alleged that Texas Roadhouse’s hiring officials have told older unsuccessful applicants across the nation that “there are younger people here who can grow with the company;” “you seem older to be applying for this job” and “do you think you would fit in?” Officials also said that the restaurant was “a younger set environment;” “we are looking for people on the younger side... but you have a lot of experience;” and “how do you feel about working with younger people?”
Age discrimination violates the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The agency seeks monetary relief for all applicants denied employment because of their age, the adoption of strong policies and procedures to remedy and prevent age discrimination by Texas Roadhouse, training on discrimination for its managers and employees, and more.
“Restaurants may not refuse to consider older workers as applicants merely because of their age,” said Elizabeth Grossman, Regional Attorney for the New York District Office.
“Applicants rarely know that they have been denied a job because of their age,” added Mark Penzel, Senior Trial Attorney in EEOC’s Boston Office. “When the Commission uncovers such evidence, it will act aggressively to remedy the violation.”