Employees sue Charleston Hooters for harassment

Posted 7:16AM on Tuesday 21st May 2002 ( 23 years ago )

CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA - Six current and former waitresses at a Charleston Hooters have sued the restaurant, saying male owners and managers routinely grope and proposition female workers there as part of a ``corporate culture of abuse.'' Filed Monday in Kanawha Circuit Court, the lawsuit also alleges that the Charleston outlet has failed to promote blacks into management and that a former owner fired women who had biracial children and told managers not to hire women who dated black men. The lawsuit demands unspecified damages, as well as a judge's order barring sexual harassment at the restaurant. Five current and one former Hooters employee filed the lawsuit. Two are or were managers, while a third was a trainer; all worked at one point as waitresses. The restaurant is a franchise of Hooters of America, a 20-year-old Atlanta company with about 300 outlets worldwide. Each is known for scantily clad waitresses that aim to create an atmosphere of, in the words of the company's Web site, ``fun, fun, fun!'' Three-quarters of the company's patrons are men between 25 and 54, the Web site says. The Charleston outlet is owned by Cornett Management Co., which operates Hooters in Charleston and Parkersburg; Pittsburgh, York and Erie, Pa.; and Richmond, Roanoke and Chesterfield, Va. The lawsuit names both current owner James Cornett III and his father, the late James Cornett Jr., who owned the company until he died at the age of 71 in November. The lawsuit alleges that the late Cornett once gave a waitress a key to his hotel room wrapped in a $100 bill and on another occasion slipped a $100 bill between the breasts of a different waitress, asking her to meet him after work. It also accuses him of racism, saying he vowed to ``get rid'' of black employees and told managers ``he did not want any women who dated or were married to African-American men.'' The lawsuit accuses Cornett III of making sexual advances to female employees, encouraging managers to have sex with female workers, making sexually offensive jokes at management training courses and failing to act when managers harassed employees. One of these managers, Joseph F. Hernandez, was promoted despite repeated complaints that he harassed, physically abused and even stalked waitresses, the lawsuit claims. Several of the plaintiffs are single parents, and at least four attend college. They allege the Cornetts and their managers exploited their vulnerable positions, aware that they needed their jobs. The Hooters corporation ``has been completely ineffective in stopping the egregious, pervasive and systematic harassment perpetrated by the owners and managers of the Charleston Hooters,'' the lawsuit claims. It also contends than an arbitration agreement that bars workers from filing complaints is unconstitutional and unenforceable. Charleston lawyers Brian Glasser and Jennifer S. Fahey represent the women, along with Hassan A. Zavareei of Washington, D.C.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/5/194445