Race Discrimination Lawsuit Filed against Panera Bread Restaurants

A race discrimination class action lawsuit has been filed by an African-American sandwich line worker at a Pennsylvania Panera Bread restaurant claiming that black employees were denied opportunities for promotion to management positions. The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, alleges that Panera restaurants precluded “Fat, Black, and Ugly” people from its workforce and kept these individuals away from customer contact. The lawsuit alleges that restaurant management adopted a racially-based hiring and work assignment policy and that blacks were routinely assigned to jobs in the back of the store, washing dishes or in food preparation, so customers would not see them. Attorneys for the worker seek class action status for the case and compensatory and punitive damages for a class of African-American workers at Panera Bread who sought management positions at the restaurant.