The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against Panda Express after a male supervisor at the company’s restaurant on Kauai allegedly sexually harassed at least three female teenage workers.
The commission filed suit against Panda Express Inc. and Panda Restaurant Group Inc. on Wednesday, alleging the supervisor at the restaurant at Kauai Village Shopping Center in Kapaa harassed the female employees beginning in 2008.
After one of the employees reported the harassment to the general manager, the teenager’s hours were cut in retaliation, forcing her to resign, according to the commission. Another teenager also was forced to quit to avoid continuous harassment by the supervisor.
Officials at Panda Restaurant Group, Inc. based in Rosemead, Calif. could not be reached for comment. The company manages and owns more than 1,400 restaurants across the country.
The harassment at Panda Express occurred daily and included sexual advances, demands for sexual favors and graphic sexual comments, according to the lawsuit.
The supervisor repeatedly made inappropriate comments to the female employees, asking them to hold his penis or take off their shirts so he could see their breasts, the suit says.
The supervisor also allegedly slapped female employees on their buttocks, rubbed against a female employee’s breasts and rubbed his crotch against them from behind, the suit says. He also thrust a broom handle between a female employee’s legs in a sexually suggestive manner.
The affected employees complained more than a dozen times to management about the sexual harassment, but the general manager as well as the multi-unit manager on Oahu failed to take steps to stop and prevent the harassment, the suit says. The employees’ hours were instead reduced.
