Two former employees of Wendy's franchisee in Georgia, are suing their branch manager over allegations of sexual assault and harassment. The branch manager allegedly exposed himself, groped the workers repeatedly and even threatened to have Mexican workers deported.
The civil suits were filed by a Norcross and a Duluth men against Hoover Foods, a franchisee of the Wendy's, located in Suwanee of the Gwinnett County. Both plaintiffs claim that they were sexually harassed, both virtually and physically, on a daily basis by the manager during their employment.
According to The Atlanta Journal Constitution, the manager would expose himself naked, and slap employees' buttocks and genitals, while making lascivious comments and repeatedly asking the plaintiffs to engage in sexual activity. "One plaintiff claimed that the manager poked him in the buttocks with a spatula while working and used the uncleaned spatula to flip burgers," AJC reported.
Meanwhile, the Mexican workers were constantly bullied and mocked about their heritage. The manager even threatened to have them deported if they would complain about their treatment in the workplace.
The plaintiffs are claiming Hoover Foods to be at fault, in failing to "institute adequate policies and procedures to accommodate complaints and investigation of complaints" of sexual and discriminatory harassment.
Following the ongoing harassment, the plaintiffs and other employees decidedly complained to the district manager of Hoover Foods' Human Resources Department via a hotline designated for harassment complaints. But the company failed to respond or investigate complaints against the manager until after the plaintiff filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint.
The manager threatened to fire the plaintiff when he found out about the complaint, and pridefully mentioned that no one would do anything about the complaint. The Duluth plaintiff added that the manager cut a portion of his salary, denied requests to transfer to another store and threatened him after the EEOC complaint was filed. Wendy's has yet to comment on that.
