A former cook at a Baltimore Olive Garden restaurant is suing the chain alleging her supervisors ignored a coworker who was allegedly repeatedly sexually assaulting her on the job.
In the suit, filed in Maryland federal court, a woman using the pseudonym “Jane Doe” says the harassment began about a week after she started working as a line cook at an Olive Garden at the White Marsh Mall in August 2022.
The cook alleges that a male coworker went out of his way to rub himself against her behind any time she bent over or the two were in a tight space together in the kitchen, with the harassment sometimes occurring “more than 20 times in a single 8-hour shift,” according to the suit.
“Our client has experienced sexual harassment that is all too common in the restaurant industry,” Doe’s attorney, Tamara Slater Alan Lescht and Associates, told The Daily Beast.
The cook’s manager was informed, but the employee reportedly told the victim not to worry about it and joked that she shouldn’t “miss out on a husband” by avoiding the alleged harassment, according to the suit.
In November 2022, the male coworker allegedly followed the cook into a bathroom, ramming her into a towel rack by opening the door into her, leaving the cook with “excruciating pain” in her back.
Upon learning of the incident, the woman’s manager told the cook the alleged harasser “knows not to do it again” but wouldn’t be fired.
The cook told another manager of the incident, who recommended the cook write up a report of her findings, the suit states. The woman also reported the alleged harassment to police, though it’s not noted in the suit if they made any investigations or arrests.
Following the November incident, no more alleged harassment continued, according to the suit, but the male coworker intentionally made the cook’s job harder by leaving dirty dishes and neglecting other work.
The restaurant also began reducing the cook’s hours, according to the suit. Unable to make a living from the restaurant, the woman resigned in March of 2023.
The Independent has contacted the attorneys representing Darden Restaurants, owner of Olive Garden, in the suit.
In a motion to dismiss earlier this month, the company argued the former cook “has not sufficiently alleged that her working conditions were so intolerable that a reasonable person in her position would have felt compelled to resign.”
The female victim asked for an unspecified amount of money in the lawsuit.
