P.F. Chang’s restaurants sued for alleged ‘pervasive’ sexual harassment
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Four women filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles against the P.F. Chang’s restaurant chain, alleging they were subjected to pervasive sexual harassment.
A representative of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based P.F. Chang’s did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
Hunter Kidner, her sister, Samantha Kidner, Lizette Vargas and Madelene Geledzhyan filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. Their allegations include sexual harassment, hostile work environment, failure to prevent discrimination, and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
The alleged harassment occurred at P.F. Chang’s restaurants in Beverly Hills, Chino Hills, Anaheim and Riverside, according to the lawsuit. Only Geledzhyan still works for the chain, the suit states.
Hunter Kidner began working at the P.F. Chang’s in Beverly Hills in August 2012 and transferred at the end of that year to Chino Hills, the suit states. She was 16 when hired and within the first few days of her employment male kitchen workers began making kissing and cat call noises toward her and other female employees, the suit states.
Hunter Kidner also alleged she was harassed by a supervisor in his 50s at Chino Hills, the suit states.
She was fired Sept. 6, shortly after she announced she planned to call P.F. Chang’s corporate office “to complain about the pervasive sexual harassment that was taking place,” according to the lawsuit.
Vargas became employed by P.F. Chang’s as a server at age 23, the suit states. Her supervisor began “looking and speaking to her in a manner that was personal and sexually motivated,” the suit states.
When Vargas declined to eat a dish he prepared for her because she was on a diet, the supervisor told her in Spanish that “sleeping with me twice is the only thing you need in order to lose weight,” the suit states.
Samantha Kidner worked as a hostess at the Chino Hills restaurant from January through June, 2014, the suit states. One of her male managers boasted to her about how many women he had sex with and called her “Babe,” the suit states.
“The sexual harassment was so aggressive and notorious at P.F. Chang’s that Samantha and other female employees often feared for their physical safety,” the suit states.