Race Discrimination Class Action Settlement and Consent Decree with McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants
Settlement Providing Employment Practice Reform and $1,100,000 Reached in Race Discrimination Class Action Against McCormick & Schmick Seafood Restaurants
On August 8, 2008, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted final approval to a nationwide class action settlement of the race discrimination claims of African-American restaurant-level hourly employees of McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant Inc. African American employees of the restaurant chain, including Spenger's Fresh Fish Grotto in Berkeley, California, alleged the restaurant company failed to hire qualified African Americans and instead favored white job applicants and employees in an effort to present a white image to the public. More information can be found at www.mccormicklawsuit.com.
The settlement has established significant injunctive relief, reforming the way the company selects, promotes, and retains African-American employees at the restaurant level throughout the country. The programmatic changes include:
- Hiring benchmarks to increase the number of African Americans employed in front of the house jobs (e.g., server, bartender, host/hostess, waiter/waitress, and cocktail server).
- Opening pathways for promotion by implementing a "registration of interest" program, which will inform employees about new job openings/promotion opportunities and about how to apply for such positions.
- Improved race discrimination complaint procedures, to ensure that problems are addressed in a timely and responsible manner.
- Monitoring and enforcement of this relief by a Diversity Monitor to ensure compliance.
In addition to the injunctive relief, McCormick & Schmick's has paid class members $1,100,000 in monetary relief to compensate them for discrimination suffered in the past. Class members are all African Americans employed by McCormick & Schmick's in front of the house or back of the house positions between May 15, 2002 and April 4, 2008.
In accordance with the settlement, notice was mailed to all class members in May 2008. Claim forms from qualifying class members were submitted by the deadline of July 25, 2008 and the money has been distributed.
About McCormick & Schmick's
McCormick & Schmick's operates restaurants across the United States under various names, including McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant, McCormick's Fish House & Bar, M&S Grill, The Heathman Restaurant, Jake's Famous Crayfish, Jake's Grill, and Spenger's Fresh Fish Grotto in Berkeley, California. The company employs more than 5,400 workers.
About Lieff Cabraser
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, is a 60-plus attorney law firm with offices in San Francisco, New York and Nashville. Our firm is committed to protecting the rights of employees nationwide to equitable treatment and fair wages. Lieff Cabraser employment attorneys have represented thousands of employees seeking to vindicate their rights in cases involving gender and race discrimination, overtime pay and wage and hour violations, and the mishandling of funds in pension and 401k plans.
We served as counsel in a class action suit against Abercrombie & Fitch, which led to a novel, precedent-setting settlement in 2005. The settlement required the retail clothing giant to pay $40 million to Latino, African-American, Asian-American and female applicants and employees who charged the company with discrimination. In addition, Abercrombie was required to promote diversity among its workforce and to prevent discrimination based on race or gender.
We served as class counsel for approximately 25,000 female employees of,
and applicants for employment with, Home Depot. In 1998, the Court approved
a settlement of the case in which Home Depot agreed to modify its hiring,
promotion and compensation practices, and paid $87.5 million, one of the highest
amounts ever paid in a gender discrimination case.
Lieff Cabraser has obtained lost wages and benefits for employees in overtime pay lawsuits, including the successful representation of employees of Denny's, Carrow's, the advertising firm TMP Worldwide, the California State Automobile Association, as well as several corporations in the computer industry including IBM and Computer Sciences Corporation.
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