Olive Garden fined after Pennsylvania manager commits alleged disability discrimination

(WHTM)– Olive Garden was ordered to pay out tens of thousands of dollars to settle a lawsuit after a Pennsylvania location allegedly committed disability discrimination.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) states that an Olive Garden manager in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, asked illegal questions to an applicant with a disability in an interview for a busser job.

The questions included how “bad” the disability was and what “was wrong with” the applicant, according to the EEOC. After the interview, the restaurant didn’t hire the applicant because of the information it learned from the illegal questions.

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GMRI, Inc., doing business as Olive Garden, will pay $30,000 and other remedies under a consent decree settling the discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC.

“Workers with disabilities provide invaluable contributions to their employers and to the American economy when given a fair opportunity to show their job-related knowledge, skills, and abilities,” EEOC Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence said. “The EEOC is strongly committed to protecting disabled workers from job discrimination, including illegal disability-related inquiries, which often produce employment decisions rooted in prejudice, implicit bias, unfounded fears or assumptions, or a desire to evade the legal duty to provide reasonable accommodations.”

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Other than the fine, Olive Garden is required to provide mandatory ADA training to the general manager and certain personnel at the Tarentum location, and the restaurant must report various information to the EEOC about employment practices.

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