Frazer Olive Garden to pay $30,000 to settle disability discrimination claim

The parent company of the Olive Garden at the Pittsburgh Mills complex in Frazer will pay $30,000 to settle a federal lawsuit that alleged the restaurant’s management discriminated against a man by not hiring him because of his disability.

GMRI, operator of the Olive Garden at Pittsburgh Mills, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) opted to settle the federal lawsuit by consent decree before any findings concerning its claims. A federal judge in the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh approved the decree Tuesday.

According to the lawsuit, the restaurant’s general manager interviewed a man with a disability for a busboy job in September 2021. The lawsuit alleged that during the interview, the manager asked questions related to the applicant’s disability such as what was “wrong with” him and how “bad” his disability was.

The lawsuit alleged the manager saw the man using a cane and ended the interview, and chose not to hire him because of the information obtained from the allegedly illegal questions about his disability.

Although the assistant manager recommended the defendant be hired, Olive Garden instead hired two people for similar jobs in November 2021, the EEOC said.

A spokeswoman for Darden Restaurants, parent company of GMRI, didn’t return a message seeking comment Wednesday.

The EEOC said it tried to avoid the lawsuit by entering into a prelitigation settlement through conciliation, but Olive Garden declined.

In addition to the payout, the consent decree prohibits Olive Garden from engaging in disability discrimination, conducting disability-related inquiries or medical examination of job applicants or taking employment actions based on information obtained through such inquiries, the EEOC said.

Olive Garden must provide mandatory ADA training to the general manager and other personnel at its Frazer location. The restaurant also must report various information to the EEOC concerning its employment practices at the site.