If you have the post-holiday blues, check this out: Women's Media Center Media Manager Rebekah Spicuglia wrote a Huffington Post piece about Chili's in Georgia firing her sister over a sexual harassment case. An excerpt:
When my sister, Rachel Spicuglia, a five-year employee of Chili's Restaurant (owned by Brinker International), reported to her manager the escalating sexual harassment she was receiving from the cooks, which had culminated in an assault that morning in the walk-in refrigerator, the manager asked Rachel if the offending employee had gotten a "full cup" when he had grabbed her breasts. Shocked that the manager would joke in such way, Rachel protested that it wasn't funny, but he insisted that it was actually information that he needed to know.Rachel ended up taking a leave of absence, filing EEOC Charge of Discrimination on August 12, but she continued to work with Chili's to arrange transfer to another store. The transfer was approved, but Rachel's calls to the store manager were never returned, and on December 9, Rachel received a letter from her health insurance, saying that her medical benefits were denied, due to the fact that she was terminated from her job. Two weeks before Christmas, without any warning, and still waiting for the EEOC to review her complaint. Apparently, Chili's was unable to fire Rachel during her leave of absence, but under Georgia law, unlike other states, you can suffer sexual harassment and be fired.
Shortly after Rebebkah's piece hit the front page of HuffPo, Brinker International, who owns Chili's, re-hired her sister, offering her the chance to resume her five year tenure with the company at a new location of her choice. Rebekah has recently posted a follow-up, which gives an even bigger picture of women in the workplace, particularly in service jobs:
There are too many people like Breslin who see sexual harassment as a general mass of "gray area" incidents. Regulating behavior in the workplace IS possible and happens every single day, as employers set a code of conduct for their employees to maintain. In addition, the impact of state legislation and regulation supporting Title VII cannot be underestimated, and Georgia residents would be better served by implementing their own laws, taking sexual harassment and employment law seriously.
Sometimes, justice is actually won through the twin tools of a empathic heart and a democratic media. Way to go Rebekah and Rachel! I'm excited to think about more ways in which HuffPo, and blogs in general, can put pressure on employers to treat their workers--women and men--with respect and dignity.
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This is great-this is exactly what the media is supposed to be doing, instigating change. I'm glad her sister could help her. Now, if only local media outlets would examine all of the huge chains in their areas...
I work at Chili's in Garden City, Long Island, and have worked in several restaurants through college, and the type of "gray area" harassment is completely commonplace and certainly needs to be addressed. However, Brinker International needs to have other pressures placed on them to deal with their uniform policies. They regularly change promotional t-shirts, which they provide one of for each employee. They normally have some silly slogan about margaritas emblazoned across the chest. This holiday season the attention to that area went a little too far, when supposedly advertising for gift cards, the slogan Brinker decided on was "Never the wrong size." Try to imagine serving two-for-one drinks on Sunday night to the football crowd in that.
omg on the whole Never the wrong size T-shirts!!! That's inciting abuse. The company should be liable.
Sorry for being dense, but how is "never the wrong size" offensive or inciting abuse? I'm not saying that it isn't, I guess don't get it.
the point is that it goes right over your chest
I remember hearing about something like this happening someplace here in connecticut, north haven, I think; at either a denny's or a chili's restaurant . it was in the new haven chapter of NOW's newsletter and they were fixing to have a protest. from what I heard, two mexican women working on the kitchen crew whom did not speak much english had to constantly put up with the manager making both comments and sexual advances in order to keep their barely $10 an hour jobs. sickening to say the least! I wanted to join in the protest, but did not get down that way as north haven is a ways from southbury. but the point is that I guess sexual harrassment happens quite often in these places. then again, seeing what some of the guys whom work at chili's and all look, and act like[ hint: gangsta hip hoppers]; I guess I shouldn't be suprised because their attitudes toward all women suck ass!
- cheryl
So its those evil scary back guys behind all this evil?
Yes, white guys in suits are never, ever sexist. Your pants must sag at least 3 inches below the boxer waistband before you can be considered sexist.
It's not the stereotype of the person, but the place they work in. Those guys are in the back of the house all day; any behavior that does not involve food prep or cooking goes unnoticed and, therefore, unchecked.
Oh noez! Not the gangsta hip-hoppers!
To be honest I'm more scared of sexism from older, wealthier white men because it's a hell of a lot harder to get any action taken against them. On the other hand, everyone falls all over themselves to get a chance to blame a black man for something like that. (Just so I make myself clear, there are good and bad men in every race. The difference is in the response)
I just had a conversation on a message board with a group of women about their first jobs. Almost everyone who started off in the restaurant or food service business reported being harassed. I remember a toothless ex-con dishwasher at Denny's telling me I needed to kiss him to get clean dishes.
Ehhhh....
I hope the EEOC does well by her. My recent experience with them was awful when I filed for maternity discrimination. I have heard the whole agency has been gutted.
Is is an outrage but if we avoid places with "Those gangsta hiphopers" all will be well, Thanks for the heads up Cheryl:)
So I take it those cooks and manager are going to be fired? And how about whoever decided to fire her in the first place, will he or she be fired?
I'm glad Ms. Spicuglia has gotten her job back, but I'd be even happier to see the harassers punished.
Excellent article. Sexual harassment is too easily ignored in many workplaces, and it's existence is everywhere!
I'm sometimes disgusted at how women allow themselves to be treated with lack of respect, and even enjoy the sexist attention of men in the workplace.
Well done to your sister for keeping her self respect in tact.
It might be worthwhile to reserve your disgust for the harassers. Many women "allow" themselves to be harassed and "enjoy the sexist attention" as a coping mechanism for an impossible situation they feel they cannot control otherwise. And they aren't the ones doing something illegal.
"then again, seeing what some of the guys whom work at chili's and all look, and act like[ hint: gangsta hip hoppers]; I guess I shouldn't be suprised because their attitudes toward all women suck ass!"
Pretty clearly a judgment based on looks and stereotypes, not a comment about the structure of the workplace.
Yet ordinary desire is a more beautifully mundane thing, a less thrusting desire, one that is softer. It is the ordinary day-to-day lived urban experience of people. It is the basic needs that count. Can I walk from where I live or work to a public space where I can just be rather than having to buy something? Desirable places fulfil the need for just being, so enabling us to experience the moment, a chance for incidental encounter, a space open for coincidence rather than having to do something specific or continuously having to consider, ‘What next?’ The Plaza Nueva in Bilbao fulfils this need, as does the contained Caracas town hall square or Stavanger’s Sølvberget Square, where, as so often, the public library, the Kulturhus, is an anchor. The sensually perfect oval square Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, the shopping street Via Fillungo in Lucca or even Djemaa el Fna in Marrakech, one of the world’s great squares, satisfy ordinary desire, as does idling around one of Amsterdam’s many markets or even ambling along its canals. Mothers looking at their kids running around, idle chatter, old guys reading the newspaper and smoking, a stall to buy a drink or a bun, a market selling flowers and food one day, second-hand knick-knacks the next. The community centre or library, a place to browse, let a chance encounter with books or through the internet take its course, read a magazine. A city is not only a static thing consisting of its built form, but also a series of small human interactions that fill a cauldron. Ordinary culture in action.