Kickback Jack’s to Pay $1.1 Million for Refusing to Hire Men

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Battleground Restaurants, Inc. and Battleground Restaurant Group, Inc., two North Carolina-based corporations doing business as Kickback Jack’s restaurants, will pay $1,111,300 to a class of male applicants and furnish other relief to settle a sex-based hiring discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

According to the EEOC’s suit, Kickback Jack’s restaurants systematically refused or failed to hire male applicants for non-managerial front-of-house positions, including server, bartender and host positions, dating back to at least December 2019. Between Dec. 1, 2019, and Feb. 18, 2022, of the more than 2,100 people employed in those positions at 19 locations across North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee, approximately 3% were male, and some restaurants had no male servers at all. The suit alleged that Battleground had no legitimate business justification for failing to hire males in these positions and that the companies failed to comply with Title VII’s recordkeeping regulations.

“Hiring must be based on merit—not sex—as Title VII requires,” said EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas. “The EEOC is committed to evenhanded enforcement and will hold employers accountable when they deny applicants opportunities because of their sex, regardless of whether the aggrieved applicants are women or men.”

“Employers are prohibited from making hiring decisions based on the sex of the applicant and any preferences in hiring or employment based on protected status are prohibited by law,” said Melinda C. Dugas, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District. “Hiring managers should recognize the importance of merit, aptitude, hard work and determination when making employment decisions. Whether sex-based hiring practices are overt, such as refusing to hire, or more subtle, such as steering or encouraging employees away from or into certain positions, they violate Title VII. The EEOC will continue to take action in cases like this to end unlawful practices and prevent further harm.”

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on sex. The EEOC filed suit (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Battleground Restaurants, Inc., and Battleground Restaurant Group, Inc., Civil Action No. 1:24-cv-00792) in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, Greensboro Division, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its voluntary conciliation process.

Under the three-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit, Kickback Jack’s is enjoined from discriminating against qualified male applicants, from steering applicants into positions on the basis of sex, and from disposing of records of employment applications. The consent decree also requires Kickback Jack’s to adopt policies prohibiting discrimination against any employee or applicant on the basis of sex; to revise its hiring procedures to ensure that all hiring decisions are made without consideration of sex; to offer an interview to any qualified applicant for an open position; and to include images of male servers in any promotional materials depicting one or more front-of-house employees. Kickback Jack’s will also be required to conduct annual training covering Title VII’s prohibitions against sex discrimination for all employees involved in the hiring process, and submit periodic reports to the EEOC regarding its hiring practices.

Joshua Kadel, lead EEOC trial attorney, said, “The EEOC’s role in the enforcement of Title VII is particularly important in hiring discrimination claims. Since employee recruitment practices are often opaque, victims may not even know they were denied employment for an unlawful reason.”

Male applicants who sought employment as a server, host and/or bartender with any of the defendants’ Kickback Jack’s restaurants in North Carolina, Tennessee or Virginia, but were not hired, or who were hired into a different position, may be claimants in this settlement and are encouraged to contact the EEOC at 984-900-5910 or KickbackJacks@eeoc.gov.

The EEOC was represented in-house by trial attorneys Joshua Kadel, Taittiona Miles, Nicholas Wolfmeyer, Emily Maloney, and Acting Assistant Regional Attorney Zoe Mahood.

For more information on sex discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/sex-based-discrimination.

The EEOC’s Charlotte District Office has jurisdiction over North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov.