The restaurant chain Chick-fil-A has been in the news recently after the company's Chief of Operations publicly announced that he opposes same-sex marriage. Now, one woman says that a Southern restaurant in the chain may be against motherhood as well. The woman has filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against her former employer and Chick-fil-A that says she was fired in June 2011 "so she could be a stay home mother.
The woman had originally been hired at the fast food restaurant in September 1991. By 1997, she had made her way up the ladder to a General Manager position with the restaurant. She says that throughout her tenure with the restaurant she had received good reviews--she says that she performed her duties throughout her employment in a satisfactory or better manner, according to the lawsuit.
She says that the owner of the restaurant where she was employed would make references suggesting that mothers should stay at home with their kids. In April 2011, the lawsuit claims that a new General Manager was brought in, and the restaurant began holding meetings in her absence. All of the participants in the management meetings were male, according to the discrimination complaint.
The woman was ultimately fired June 27, 2011, with no reason given. The woman says that the owner of the restaurant told her and several other people that the termination was so the woman could be a stay at home mother. The lawsuit alleges that the restaurant has engaged in a pattern of gender discrimination against women.
The restaurant at issue is not in Florida, but is located in our neighbor to the north--Georgia. Nonetheless, the federal discrimination lawsuit is being brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects workers from job discrimination in all states.
Source: Huffington Post, "Brenda Honeycutt, Former Chick-Fil-A Employee, Sues Restaurant Over Gender Discrimination," Cavan Sieczkowski, July 27, 2012
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