Freehold, Colts Neck Teens Were Harassed, Groped At Work: Lawsuit

FREEHOLD, NJ - Two Monmouth County teens are suing their former employer, Chili’s Grill & Bar, alleging that they suffered a pattern of sexual harassment while management did nothing.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Trenton last month, the teens report that coworkers “groped, touched, and ogled” the girls for nearly a year at the Route 9 location without intervention from supervisors.

Chili's parent company Brinker International and the location’s former general manager Carrie Buchanan are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

One of the plaintiffs, who was 16 years old when she started working at the chain in March 2019, began working alongside kitchen staff after serving a “front-of-the-house” role. In one instance, the teen went inside a walk-in refrigerator in the kitchen when a coworker “followed her into the walk in and tried to pull her pants down and kiss her neck while holding her waist tightly and groping her,” according to the complaint. The same coworker, referred to as Marlon, would continue to touch the Freehold teen on “multiple occasions."

Later, Buchanan allegedly told the teen “not to worry and that she would handle it,” the complaint reads. However, the situation never seemed to resolve under Buchanan's leadership: “During this time period other members of the kitchen staff repeatedly groped, touched, and ogled her daily … despite the numerous complaints of sexual harassment by Plaintiff Defendant’s managers and supervisors, Defendant never remedied the work environment.”

Kitchen staff often told the plaintiff "extremely sexual and derogatory things about another female employee as well," the complaint continues, with another employee grabbing the plaintiff, held her wrists and repeatedly said “don’t scream” as he tried to grope her. The girl went to her manager afterwards, who told her “not to complain to Human Resources and to let her handle it internally."

The second plaintiff, a 17-year-old from Colts Neck, similarly claims that, from January to February 2020, the same coworker from the walk-in freezer incident would squeeze her tightly, snap her bra strap, squeeze her hips and attempt to touch her buttocks.

Eventually, a manager and shift leader wrote the 17-year-old’s complaint into a log while Buchanan was away on vacation, despite leaving instructions not to record issues while she was absent. A regional manager reviewed the complaint.

The behavior caused both employees to leave their jobs, the complaint reads, resulting in emotional pain, humiliation and suffering for the teens.

The plaintiffs are claiming gender discrimination and retaliation under New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination, having filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in April. The teens are demanding a trial by jury on all issues listed and seek damages for all emotional distress, back pay and front pay, punitive damages, liquidated damages, statutory damages and legal fees.