PORTLAND — A Beaverton, Ore.-based company that owns a chain of local Burger King and Denny’s restaurants will pay $150,000 to resolve a sexual harassment suit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency announced Tuesday.
Kaizen Restaurants Inc., which operates about 30 restaurants in Portland and Vancouver, also was ordered to implement measures to spot and prevent workplace sexual harassment.
According to the EEOC, Kaizen Restaurants was charged with allowing a male supervisor at the company’s Sandy, Ore., Burger King to sexually harass a female teen employee. When her complaints about the supervisor’s inappropriate comments and advances were ignored, she contacted the EEOC.
In a ruling that upheld the Civil Rights Act of 1964, U.S. District Court Judge Garr M. King ordered Kaizen to pay the employee $150,000 and adopt a comprehensive non-discrimination policy.
