Restaurant ignored reports about lead server sexually harassing SC workers, feds say
The lead server of a South Carolina seafood restaurant sexually harassed a female employee, officials say. When the employee reported it to management, nothing was done.
Now a federal agency is suing Silver Bay Seafood Restaurant Inc. for a civil rights violation, according to a new lawsuit.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit on July 31 against the South Carolina-based restaurant for failing to stop a lead server from sexually harassing a female employee at its Simpsonville location.
McClatchy News reached out to Silver Bay Seafood in Simpsonville, which is about 15 miles southeast of Greenville, for comment on Aug. 3 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
The EEOC says in a news release that “this was not the first time the head server harassed a female employee.”
The lead server subjected the employee to “inappropriate sexual comments and unwanted touching,” according to the release. The employee reported these incidents to the managers and owners of the restaurant in February 2021, but “they gave no indication they took the complaint seriously or that they would address the situation.”
The federal agency says employers either “knew or should have known” about the male employee’s habit of sexually harassing coworkers.
The restaurant and the EEOC could not reach a settlement, so federal officials filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina, according to the release.
Betsy Rader, district director for the EEOC’s Charlotte District, said in the release “it is important employers listen and appropriately respond to sexual harassment complaints by all employees, including young people who may be new to the workplace and particularly vulnerable to imbalances of power.”
Discrimination based on sex is illegal under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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