NEW YORK — The owner/operator of several upstate New York Subway franchises has settled a lawsuit filed by a federal agency alleging one of its former managers texted teenage girls job offers in exchange for sex.
According to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), in the Northern District of New York, a previous manager at a Subway in New York's Draper's Rotterdam Square Mall sexually harassed teenage girl job applicants.
The former manager sent texts with sexually explicit messages in which he proposed sex for a job including one which said "Bang my brains out and the job is yours," according to the EEOC.
"No teenager who is just beginning to navigate the working world should ever have to deal with unwelcome sexual advances as part of the hiring process," EEOC lead trial attorney Charles Coleman Jr. said in a statement. "The remedial provisions of the consent decree are designed to ensure such behavior never occurs again at this restaurant."
"Conditioning hiring in exchange for sexual favors, known as quid-pro-quo sexual harassment, is exactly the type of behavior that has made the deserved momentum around #MeToo continue to grow stronger," added EEOC regional attorney Jeffrey Burstein. "The EEOC is determined to do its part to ensure sexual harassment of this kind is eradicated from the workplace."
The Subway franchise owner/operator, Draper Development LLC, will pay $80,000 as part of the settlement as well as implement training for its managers regarding the prohibiting of sexual harassment, according to the EEOC.