EEOC Sues McDonald's for Hostile Work Environment & Sexual Harassment

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has filed a class action lawsuit against a McDonald’s restaurant in Reedsburg, Wisconsin claiming that the restaurant allowed its male employees to sexually harass its female workers.  The Complaint filed in federal court in the Western District of Wisconsin alleges that the restaurant created a sexually hostile work environment when it subjected its female workers to sexual comments about the bodies of female coworkers, kissed them, touched their private areas, and forced their hands onto the male employees’ private areas.  The EEOC claims that the restaurant’s management ignored the harassment and unlawfully fired two employees when they complained about the harassment.  According to the EEOC, several of the victims were teenage high school students, who were particularly vulnerable to the harassment.