GREENSBORO, N.C. — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is reaching out to male job applicants who were not hired by Kickback Jack’s restaurants in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia as part of an ongoing sex discrimination lawsuit, the agency announced Thursday.
Discriminatory Hiring Allegations
The EEOC filed the lawsuit on Sept. 25, 2024, in a federal court in Greensboro, N.C., against Battleground Restaurants, Inc., and Battleground Restaurant Group, Inc. The suit alleges the company refused to hire male applicants for front-of-house positions, including servers, bartenders, and host/hostess roles, since December 2019.
Between Dec. 1, 2019, and Feb. 18, 2022, more than 2,100 people worked in these roles at 19 Kickback Jack’s restaurants, yet only about three percent were male, with some locations hiring no men at all. The EEOC argues there was no legitimate business justification for this hiring pattern and that the company also violated recordkeeping regulations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Legal Action and Remedies Sought
The EEOC filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina after attempts to reach a pre-litigation settlement. The agency seeks back pay, compensatory and punitive damages for affected individuals, as well as injunctive relief to end the alleged discrimination…