The San Diego County-based Swami’s Cafe restaurant chain has agreed to pay $650,000 to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit in which numerous female employees alleged they were sexually harassed by male supervisors and co-workers.
The lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged that young female Swami’s employees, including teenagers, were subjected to “repeated, frequent and offensive sex-based remarks and advances, as well as unwelcome touching.”
A former manager of Swami’s Cafe — who is at the center of a federal lawsuit that alleges employee harassment — has been placed on leave, following a temporary restraining order. NBC 7’s Allison Ash reports.
The EEOC said employees who complained were retaliated against and forced to quit their jobs.
Swami’s did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, but agreed to a two-year consent decree that was approved by a San Diego federal judge on Monday.
Along with the monetary relief, the decree holds that Swami’s will retain an equal employment opportunity monitor, establish a complaint procedure and toll-free hotline, and put policies in place for reporting discrimination, harassment and retaliation.
The popular beachside cafe is now the target of EEOC investigation.
Mandatory training will be implemented for supervisors and non-supervisory personnel, and notice of the settlement will be posted at all Swami’s locations, as well as at the Honey Bistro in Encinitas.
Those who were fired or quit will be given the opportunity to be reinstated and “the company shall also remove any negative references to the harassment, discrimination and retaliation from the employees’ personnel files,” the EEOC said.
“We commend these young women for their bravery in coming forward, asserting their rights, and giving a voice to others,” said Jacquelyn Famber, director of the EEOC’s San Diego office. “The injunctive relief in this decree is an excellent step forward for Swami’s Cafe and Honey Bistro, and it would behoove other employers to take note of the relief furnished in this case and implement similar changes as necessary.”
The lawsuit detailed alleged incidents dating back to at least 2019 at nine locations, including Honey’s Bistro in Encinitas and the Swami’s locations in Encinitas, Vista, Carlsbad, Escondido, Oceanside, La Mesa, downtown, North Park and Hillcrest.
“We deny the allegations and will vigorously defend against this lawsuit,” a spokesperson for Swami’s 101 LLC said in May 2023. “We look forward to presenting our defense in court.”
The most egregious allegations were against John Nolan, a manager at the coastal Encinitas location who was accused of physically touching and making sexual comments directed at the restaurant’s young women employees.
“Since at least 2019, defendants have had a pattern of hiring teenage girls as young as 16 years old based on their appearance and vulnerability, using manipulative tactics to subject them to a highly sexualized work environment in which Swami’s male manager, John Nolan, would sexually harass them daily,” the suit alleges.
In some cases, Nolan attempted to have sexual relations with the employees, the EEOC alleged. He played favorites among those who complied, rewarding them with expensive gifts like bicycles, surfboards, cash and illegal drugs, and retaliated against those who refused, assigning undesirable work shifts, yelling at them in front of customers and intimidating them, according to the court papers. In one instance, the lawsuit said, a complainant who told Nolan it was inappropriate to call her “baby” or “sexy” was fired. Others quit.
The lawsuit also claims Swami’s owner Jaime Osuna was there for some of Nolan’s comments toward women staffers and instead of stepping in, “He joined, in staring her up and down.”
Other incidents include sexual harassment from coworkers and cooks at other Swami’s locations and from a dishwasher at Honey’s Bistro, who would grab waitresses from behind, the lawsuit states. Many of the women employees did not know there was a way to report harassment and in the incidents where women did complain, no action was taken, the lawsuit said.