The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday filed a class action lawsuit against McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant, alleging the company racially discriminated against black applicants and employees at its two Baltimore locations.
The EEOC claims that the restaurant's management refused to hire black applications for publicly visable positions, including servers, cocktail servers, host/hostess and bartenders, from Jan.1, 1998 to the present. The suit also claims that in 2003 the company segregated front-of-house black applicants and employees by disproportionately assigning them to positions at one of the restaurants rather than the other.
The suit also charges the retail chain with making table assignments based on race by assigning black employees to less lucrative tables and tables with customers of the same race.
Liz Brady, a spokeswoman for McCormick and Schmick's told the Associated Press the company "is an equal employment opportunity employer that maintains policies prohibiting unlawful discrimination or harassment."
