Seattle Cheesecake Factory Sued Over Firing Deaf Employee

SEATTLE, WA — The federal government is suing the downtown Seattle Cheesecake Factory location, alleging that the restaurant failed to accommodate a deaf part-time dishwasher and then fired him unjustly.

The U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) announced the suit on Tuesday afternoon on behalf of former Cheesecake Factory Oleg Ivanov, who worked at the Seattle location for a year. The EEOC makes several allegations in its suit:

• The restaurant ignored Ivanov's requests that he be allowed to watch a training video with either captions or with American Sign language interpretation.
• Instead of accommodating Ivanov's deafness, the restaurant relied on passing written notes to him as a main form of communication.
• The restaurant left Ivanov at a disadvantage using company scheduling and timekeeping systems because they did not provide him with an accommodation while training him on those systems.

In a statement, Cheesecake Factory spokesperson Alethea Rowe declined to speak about this specific case, saying that the company does not comment on ongoing litigation or personnel issues.

“The Cheesecake Factory is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to any of its staff members needing one. We believe that all our staff members should be treated with dignity and respect. In order to protect the privacy of our present or former staff members, we do not address individual personnel issues," she told Patch.com.

The EEOC is seeking damages on Ivanov's behalf and changes in the Seattle Cheesecake Factory's anti-discrimination training. The EEOC brought the suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Under the ADA, employers must interact with the employee who has a disability to find an accommodation that works for both of them,” Nancy Sienko, director of EEOC’s Seattle Field Office, said in a press release. “Ivanov clearly communicated that he needed an accommodation to ensure that he could succeed at the job he was hired to do, but instead The Cheesecake Factory chose to fire him.”

Image via Google Maps