EEOC Sues Taco Bell Franchisees for Sexual Harassment and Retaliation

DETROIT – Six related entities operating Taco Bell restaurants in Michigan violated federal law when they allowed a senior area manager to sexually harass female employees, including multiple teenage employees, he supervised, and fired a local assistant manager the same day she reported the senior area manager’s misconduct, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

According to the lawsuit, for months, the upper-level manager sexually harassed female employees, including underage employees, on a near-daily basis at multiple Taco Bell restaurants he supervised. The harassment included inappropriate sexual comments, such as asking if underage employees were sexually active, asking an employee if she would give him “sugar” when she turned 18, unwanted and inappropriate touching of females under age 18, and asking an assistant manager for videos or images of her having sex with her boyfriend.

The defendants failed to take effective action against the senior manager, despite receiving multiple complaints from different employees, supervisors and managers. On the same day a local assistant manager complained of the senior area manager’s sexual harassment, she was fired. After that complaint, the senior area manager continued to sexually harass female employees for several months until he was eventually fired.

Such alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits sexual harassment and retaliation for reporting sex discrimination. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Teamlyders, LLC et al., Case No. 25-10575) in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

“Employers must take reports of sexual harassment seriously and ensure that appropriate and timely steps are taken to stop the harassment,” said Kenneth Bird, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Indianapolis office. “To fire an employee who reports harassment, while allowing the harasser to continue hurting employees, runs afoul of federal civil rights laws.”

Omar Weaver, an assistant regional attorney for the EEOC’s Detroit office, said, “Teenage fast-food workers are particularly vulnerable to workplace harassment, and the EEOC will hold employers accountable for unlawful retaliatory conduct.”

Women who believe they were sexually harassed by an area coach at a Taco Bell restaurant in Canton, Dearborn, Romulus, and Ypsilanti, Michigan and individuals who may have information that would be helpful to the EEOC’s suit, should contact the EEOC at 313-774-0058 or by e-mail at TacoBell.MI.Lawsuit@eeoc.gov.

For more information on sexual harassment, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/sexual-harassment. For more information on retaliation, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/retaliation.

The EEOC’s Youth@Work website (http://www.eeoc.gov/youth/) presents information for teens and other young workers about employment discrimination, including curriculum guides for students and teachers and videos to help young workers learn about their rights and responsibilities.

The lawsuit was initiated by the EEOC’s Detroit Field Office, one of four component offices of the agency’s Indianapolis District Office. The Indianapolis District Office has jurisdiction over Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and part of Ohio.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division; the EEOC is responsible for investigating charges against state and local government employers before referring them to DOJ for potential litigation. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.