MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont company that operates as a McDonald’s restaurant franchisee has been ordered to pay $1.6 million in damages and penalties after authorities stated it failed to guard younger staff from hurt and sexual harassment, the state legal professional basic’s workplace introduced Friday.
The settlement reached by the state and the U.S. Equal Alternative Fee with Coughlin Inc. is the most important public sexual harassment settlement within the historical past of the Lawyer Normal’s Workplace and one of many largest reported employment discrimination settlements in Vermont, the state says.
Among the many phrases within the five-year consent decree, Coughlin will set up a settlement fund of $1.2 million to offer compensation to victims of the harassment at its Randolph restaurant and revise its insurance policies and procedures round sexual harassment.
It’ll additionally pay $125,000 in civil penalties and different damages to the State of Vermont, and $275,000 in damages to the property of one of many complainants who died throughout the course of the litigation.
The state says the litigation started when the EEOC sued Coughlin in March 2021 for failing to guard younger staff at its Randolph restaurant from a supervisor whose conduct over a interval of years included hitting staff, in addition to making offensive and degrading sexual feedback.
The state says it intervened within the case based mostly on its historical past with Coughlin. In 2007, the state Workplace Civil Rights Unit decided that Coughlin violated Vermont’s Truthful Employment Practices Act when it failed to deal with the sexual harassment of staff at a distinct McDonald’s restaurant.
“This settlement units the tone for employers to acknowledge their obligation to maintain staff protected, respect their dignity, and supply a office freed from discrimination,” Vermont’s Appearing Lawyer Normal Joshua Diamond stated in a press release.
The attorneys for Coughlin didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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