Female workers sue McCormick & Schmick's over lewd behavior

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Philip Marcelo, Associated Press
 Updated 2:47 pm, Tuesday, December 12, 2017


BOSTON (AP) — Female kitchen workers at the McCormick & Schmick's seafood restaurant in downtown Boston were subjected to constant groping and lewd comments from male supervisors and co-workers, and their complaints to the company were routinely ignored, five women said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The lawsuit highlights the abuse and harassment women in low-wage hospitality positions routinely face, even as allegations of sexual misconduct roil white-collar industries like film, media and politics, said Sophia Hall, an attorney for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, which represents the women.

 
"These are positions that society often overlooks," she said. "These women are particularly vulnerable, with limited English and no access to an effective reporting procedure. They suffered daily and in humiliating ways."

 
Fabiana Santos, who worked as a prep cook at the restaurant, detailed the lewd comments and unwanted touching she endured from a male dishwasher at a news conference Tuesday.



Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Workers-to-discuss-harassment-suit-against-12423325.php

[oberliner]

1. Hopefully more to come (in terms of consequences for harassers)

Keep holding people accountable for this behavior.

[iluvtennis]

2. Ditto.

[riversedge]

3. K and R. Keep coming #metoo

[smirkymonkey]

4. Good! It's about time!

[marble falls]

5. Women have been groped in every kitchen of every restaurant I ever worked in. Its a big dirty secret

[TexasBushwhacker]

8. That's what Anthony Bourdain says too

And the victims aren't always female either. He said when he was starting out there was a chef who would stick his fingers up Tony's ass infront of the whole kitchen crew and everyone laughed.

[marble falls]

10. It bugged me at the time and I don't know but maybe only a couple of waitresses who "liked it"....

most of us were passive about it, it was always a couple of alphas and it was made to seem as some sort of hazing. I know that some newer women were driven off. I never joined in but I felt kind of complicit in a sort of 'sheeple' way. One thing I am not proud of: I stood passively if uncomfortably by as people I thought of as friends were harassed and I never said anything that would indicate how unfair and bullying I thought it was. I helped to create a warped normal for people who just plain did not deserve it. I wasn't laughing but I wasn't crying foul, either.

Thirty years later and I still have this disappointment in myself.

[homegirl]

6. Women have to learn

to fight back. If a male dishwasher is groping a female co worker, especially in a kitchen with knives, hot objects and the like, there is an out. "Accidental" jabs and spills and splashes will have the desired effect. Or a handful of ice cubes down his pants.

[RobinA]

7. Seediness

in the restaurant business. Who knew???

What goes on in restaurant kitchens could keep courts busy for decades.

[FakeNoose]

9. Well the victims may not have access to lawyers

... and they might not even be aware of their rights. So many of those restaurant/hotel employees are immigrants, living paycheck to paycheck with very few options. It's close to slavery, really. It took a lot of guts for these women to file a lawsuit.