{"id":78990,"date":"2025-12-03T01:09:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T01:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/78990\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T01:09:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T01:09:06","slug":"swamis-ordered-to-pay-650000-to-settle-sexual-harassment-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/78990\/","title":{"rendered":"Swami’s ordered to pay $650,000 to settle sexual harassment case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A planned Swami\u2019s Caf\u00e9 before its opening in North County. (File photo)<\/p>\n

A San Diego County restaurant chain, it was announced Tuesday, has agreed to pay a six-figure settlement to end a harassment and retaliation lawsuit on behalf of several female employees.<\/p>\n

The allegations against Swami\u2019s Cafe in the suit, some dating back to 2019, include sexual harassment by male supervisors and co-workers.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission<\/a>, alleged that female Swami\u2019s employees, including teenagers, were subjected to \u201crepeated, frequent and offensive sex-based remarks and advances, as well as unwelcome touching.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EEOC said employees who complained were retaliated against and even forced to quit their jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to see young women experience sexual harassment in the restaurant industry, often during their first job experience,\u201d\u00a0said Anna Park, an EEOC regional attorney. \u201cEmployers have a duty to protect young workers by putting in place strong policies and procedures that ensure managers and supervisors are held accountable for maintaining a safe and respectful workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swami\u2019s, which operates nine restaurants<\/a> in the region, did not admit wrongdoing while settling the case, but agreed to a payment of $650,000 and a two-year consent decree, which U.S. District Judge Benjamin J. Cheeks approved on Monday.<\/p>\n

The decree holds that Swami\u2019s will retain an equal employment opportunity monitor, establish complaint procedures and a toll-free hotline, and put policies in place for reporting discrimination, harassment and retaliation.<\/p>\n

Mandatory training will be implemented and notice of the settlement will be posted at all Swami\u2019s locations, as well as the Honey Bistro in Encinitas.<\/p>\n

Those who were fired or quit will be given the opportunity to return and \u201cthe company shall also remove any negative references to the harassment, discrimination and retaliation from the employees\u2019 personnel files,\u201d the EEOC said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe commend these young women for their bravery in coming forward, asserting their rights, and giving a voice to others,\u201d said Jacquelyn Famber, director of the EEOC\u2019s San Diego office. \u201cThe injunctive relief in this decree is an excellent step forward for Swami\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

City News Service contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A planned Swami\u2019s Caf\u00e9 before its opening in North County. (File photo) A San Diego County restaurant chain,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[36778,74,76,75,5675,29463,45465,45466],"class_list":["post-78990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-consent-decree","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-settlement","tag-sexual-harassment","tag-swamis-cafe","tag-u-s-equal-employment-opportunity-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}