How to Prevent and Address Employee Sexual Harassment in Your Restaurant

On October 23, 2017 Celebrity Chef John Besh stepped down as CEO of the Besh Restaurant Group amid allegations of sexual harassment. It is reported that 25 women came forward accusing Besh of sexual harassment.

The biggest hurdle for the Besh Restaurant Group was that it did not have a credible avenue for women to report sexual harassment or a human resources department that could investigate such complaints. Besh's departure needs to be a wakeup call for restaurants to immediately reevaluate their tolerance towards sexual harassment in the workplace and create an environment that not only allows complaints of harassment, but effectively addresses them. If they don't, they are likely to find themselves at the other end of #MeToo, which people have been using to share their experiences with sexual harassment.

In June 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency charged with regulating and enforcing laws to prevent employment discrimination, issued a report. The agency's "Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace" stated workplace harassment remains a persistent problem and often goes unreported.

As part of its 2017 Strategic Enforcement Plan, the EEOC also announced that harassment continues to be one of the most frequent complaints raised in the workplace. Of the 91,503 charges filed with the EEOC in fiscal year 2016 (which included workplace discrimination based on religion, national origin, race, color, or sex), 12,860 charges alleged sex-based harassment. It should be no surprise that among the EEOC's six substantive area priorities for fiscal years 2017 through 2021 is to prevent systemic harassment in the workplace.