EEOC, Razzoo's chain reach $1.M sex-bias hiring accord

Nation's Restaurant News, May 19, 2008

DALLAS -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has reached a $1 million settlement with the 11-unit Razzoo's Cajun Cafe chain of Irving, Texas, in a sex-discrimination case involving male bartenders.

The EEOC claimed that Razzoo's refused to hire or promote men to the position of bartender in its restaurants.

The company admitted no guilt and said it settled the case to avoid the expense of a trial.

In the settlement, Razzoo's will pay $775,000 to as many as 80 male applicants, servers and bartenders and spend at least $225,000 for human resources programs. The EEOC contended that Razzoo's management communicated to managers by e-mail a plan for an 80-20 ratio of women to men behind the bar.

"The few men who were promoted to bartender were not allowed to work lucrative 'girls-only' bartending events," the EEOC said in a press release.