A popular seafood restaurant at Baltimore?s Inner Harbor refused to hire black applicants for “visible jobs” and assigned black employees to work in the back of the restaurant, the federal government alleged in a discrimination lawsuit filed Monday.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges in the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore that the popular restaurant McCormick & Schmick?s has engaged in discriminatory practices since 1998 at both of its Baltimore locations.
“It?s very unfortunate we continue to see examples of racial bias,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Jacqueline McNair, whose district includes Maryland.
In a statement, the restaurant declined to comment specifically about the claims.
“We are an equal employment opportunity employer that maintains policies prohibiting unlawful discrimination or harassment,” said Liz Brady, a spokeswoman for the company. “Notwithstanding this, our practice is not to discuss specific details that are the subject of such claims as it may impair our ability to successfully resolve them.”
Specifically, the suit alleges the restaurant?s management refused to hire black applicants for front-of-house positions in the two restaurants for such jobs as server, bartender, cocktail server, host or hostess.
Since September 2003, the restaurant “segregated” front-of-house black applicants and employees by disproportionately assigning them to positions at one restaurant rather than the other because of their race, the EEOC alleges.
At both Baltimore restaurants, the federal agency says, management made table assignments because of race by assigning black employees to less lucrative tables of smaller parties, to tables with customers of the same race, and by assigning black employees to less visible positions, the EEOC said.
The federal agency brought the suit under VII of the Civil Rights Act.
The EEOC said the number of discrimination claims across the country is increasing.
In fiscal 2007, the EEOC received 30,510 chargefilings alleging race-based discrimination, an increase of 12 percent from the prior year and the highest level in the past 15 years.
