Suit alleges sex bias in bartender hirings

Buffalo Wild Wings said to rebuff men

A federal lawsuit filed Thursday by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges that Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants in Arkansas and Oklahoma have engaged in sex discrimination by refusing to hire male bartenders.

The lawsuit focuses on the Little Rock location’s alleged refusal on July 22, 2014 to hire David Golden, an experienced bartender who responded to an advertisement on Craigslist, because of his sex. It says a manager told Golden that the business “wanted to hire a female bartender because there was already a male bartender at this location.”

The lawsuit also said the manager told Golden that it was the company’s policy “to have only one male bartender at a time at its locations.”

The suit names R Wings R Wild LLC, doing business as Buffalo Wild Wings, which it says is an Arkansas company that owns and operates 16 independent locations in Arkansas and Oklahoma. The location where Golden applied is at 14800 Cantrell Road.

A call to the restaurant Thursday wasn’t returned. Neither was a voice mail left at the Buffalo Wild Wings headquarters in Minneapolis.

The lawsuit and a news release from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office in Little Rock say the federal agency first tried to reach a pre-litigation settlement with the business. The lawsuit seeks monetary relief in the form of back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, compensation for lost benefits and an injunction against future discrimination.

The lawsuit says the Arkansas-based company has, between Feb. 2, 2014 and April of 2015, “failed to hire at least nine other male applicants who applied for bar-tending positions at its Arkansas and Oklahoma locations.”

All of the men who applied had previous bartending expe- rience, the commission said, noting that women were hired into the open positions for which the men applied.

At least half of Buffalo Wild Wings’ locations in Arkansas and Oklahoma never employed a male bartender between those same dates, the suit further alleges.

It says, “The effects of the practices complained of … has been to deprive other males of equal employment opportunities … because of their sex, male.”

“Sex discrimination violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” according to the commission’s news release.

“Federal law protects both male and female applicants in their quest for employment,” said Katharine Kores, director of the agency’s Memphis district office, which has jurisdiction over Arkansas, Tennessee and parts of Mississippi.

“It is just as illegal to deny a male employment because of his sex as it is a female,” Kores said. “Employers must realize that no person, male or female, can be denied employment based on sex, except in rare instances when gender is a bona fide occupational qualification.”

The suit, filed in Little Rock, is assigned to U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson.