The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a lawsuit against the restaurant chain Panda Express for actions of its San Jose, California restaurant.
The EEOC is alleging Panda Express discriminated against its Latino workers by making them clean bathrooms and perform other menials task while the Asian employees stood around and observed and had an overall easier workload. In addition, these Latino workers were disciplined more than their Asian counterparts and were given less work hours.
The federal suit claims the actions by this Panda Express violate the civil rights of these employees and discriminates against them due to their ethnicity. The EEOC is seeking to obtain damages for these Latinos employees and have Panda Express put in place anti-discrimination policies.
The company which employees 18,000 employees in over 1,200 locations, has not commented on the federal government lawsuit nor is it known if other Panda Express locations are being targeted by the EEOC.
