NC restaurant chain refused to hire men, lawsuit claims. It’ll pay $1M to settle case
North Carolina restaurant and sports bar Kickback Jack’s will pay over $1.1 million to resolve a federal sex-based discrimination lawsuit for not hiring men for certain jobs.
The Greensboro-based chain has 21 locations in North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, including two restaurants in the Charlotte region in Mooresville and Hickory, according to the company’s website. There also are two locations in the Raleigh area in Durham and Garner.
The restaurants systematically refused or failed to hire male applicants for non-managerial front-of-house roles, such as server, bartender and host positions, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in Wednesday’s settlement announcement.
“Since employee recruitment practices are often opaque, victims may not even know they were denied employment for an unlawful reason,” Joshua Kadel, lead EEOC trial attorney, said the statement.
Officials at Kickback Jack’s parent company Battleground Restaurants and their attorneys did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Kickback Jack’s discrimination settlement
On Sept. 25, 2024, the EEOC filed a lawsuit in federal court in the Middle District of North Carolina Greensboro Division against Battleground Restaurants and Battleground Restaurant Group, which operate Kickback Jack’s.
Between Dec. 1, 2019, and Feb. 18, 2022, only about 3% of the more than 2,100 people employed in those positions at Kickback Jack’s restaurants were male, the EEOC said. Some restaurants had no male servers at all. At the time, the chain had 19 stores.
The companies lacked a legitimate business justification for failing to hire men in these roles, according to the EEOC.
The settlement mandates that Kickback Jack’s implement several changes, including:
- Adopting policies prohibiting sex discrimination against any employee or applicant.
- Offering interviews to any qualified applicant for an open position and including images of male servers in promotional materials that depict front-of-house employees.
- Conducting annual training on legal prohibitions against sex discrimination for all employees involved in hiring, and submitting periodic reports to the EEOC regarding its hiring practices.
“Hiring must be based on merit — not sex,” said EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas. Melinda Dugas, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District Office, in the statement.
How applicants can join Kickback Jack’s settlement
Male applicants who were denied jobs or hired into a different position for server, host, or bartender roles at a Kickback Jack’s during the specified dates may be eligible for compensation under the settlement. They are encouraged to contact the EEOC at 984-900-5910 or KickbackJacks@eeoc.gov.
