Pa. Olive Garden agrees to pay $30K in disability discrimination lawsuit settlement

GMRI Inc. — which operates several chain restaurants, including an Olive Garden location near Pittsburgh — agreed to pay $30,000 on Tuesday as part of a lawsuit settlement involving a manager who denied an applicant based on their disability.

The lawsuit, filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), said the general manager of GMRI’s Olive Garden in Tarentum, Allegheny County, asked an applicant for a busser position about his ability to walk with a cane as well as asking what was “wrong with” the applicant and how “bad” his disability was, the release said.

The EEOC said the manager ended the interview and the restaurant refused to hire the applicant because of his disability.

The lawsuit cited Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which prohibits discrimination based on disability in employment.

A decree signed by a federal court on Tuesday also ordered the Tarentum Olive Garden location to provide ADA training to the general manager and other employees and report information to the EEOC regarding its hiring practices.

“Workers with disabilities provide invaluable contributions to their employers and to the American economy when given a fair opportunity to show their job-related knowledge, skills, and abilities,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence. “The EEOC is strongly committed to protecting disabled workers from job discrimination, including illegal disability-related inquiries, which often produce employment decisions rooted in prejudice, implicit bias, unfounded fears or assumptions, or a desire to evade the legal duty to provide reasonable accommodations.”

The EEOC’s Philadelphia District Office has jurisdiction in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and parts of New Jersey and Ohio, according to the press release.

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