RESTAURANT SUED FOR SEX HARASSMENT
McCormick & Schmick’s accused by five women
Five current and former female employees have sued Boston restaurant McCormick
& Schmick’s alleging systemic sexual harassment, but the restaurant chain said the complaints were dealt with two years ago and claimed inconsistencies in new statements.
“During my time there, my male supervisor repeatedly sexually harassed me,” said Marta Romero, a dishwasher from 2011 to 2015 at McCormick & Schmick’s Faneuil Hall location, speaking through a translator. “He then followed me into the walk-in, trapped me and groped my breasts. I felt powerless, trapped.”
Romero and four others filed a lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday, seeking damages from the restaurant for failing to curb rampant sexual harassment. Romero said a sous chef repeatedly touched her butt, and once was waiting for her when she went in the women’s restroom to change her clothes.
“The disgusting things that happened to me made me feel dirty, and when I got home I felt dirty, I didn’t want my kids to touch me,” Fabiana Santos, a prep cook from 2002 to 2015, said through a translator.
Santos said a male dishwasher pushed her into a table with his groin. She reported the incident to the executive chef, according to the complaint, but no action was taken. She had previously reported an incident when the dishwasher made sexual remarks, using a vulgar Portuguese word.
“It’s something that you bring home with you, you take home with you, and it affects your life,” Santos said.
The restaurant chain said in a statement: “McCormick and Schmick’s strives to maintain a harassment-free environment. When harassment of any type is reported, we take matters seriously and immediately investigate, resulting in swift, appropriate action.” The statement said “an offending employee was immediately terminated, among other disciplinary actions” when the complaints were raised in 2015.
The company added that antidiscrimination authorities declined to take the case and said the plaintiff ’s lawyers “have latched on to the current frenzy concerning sexual harassment and filed a lawsuit citing inflammatory allegations that conflicted with statements of their own clients and that at least one independent eyewitness identified during our investigation said was untrue. We are confident that after we were put on notice, we did all we could to restore the work place to a harassment-free environment and that we will prevail in the litigation.”
McCormick & Schmick’s operates 53 restaurants in 20 states and the District of Columbia, according to its website. The Faneuil Hall location is the only one in Massachusetts.