Tavern Faces Lawsuit Over Discrimination
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Tavern on the Green is facing a lawsuit from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which accuses the restaurant of sexual, racial, and discriminatory harassment against female employees.
The complaint, filed on behalf of a hostess, Martha Gatkuoth, in U. S. District Court in Manhattan yesterday, says a former operations director, Leon Drogy, and other managers engaged in “severe” and “pervasive” harassment. The accused employees used racial slurs when referring to Ms. Gatkuoth and others, according to the complaint, and would make lewd sexual comments and requests to female employees.
An attorney for Tavern on the Green, Mara Levin, denied the accusations. When Ms. Gatkuoth first raised the complaints with the restaurant’s upper management in 2005, they immediately conducted a thorough investigation, suspended Mr. Drogy, and determined the suit’s allegations were “entirely devoid of merit,” Ms. Levin said in a statement.