HOUSTON – The owner of two Berryhill restaurants is facing a lawsuit accusing him of sexual harassment.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit Thursday against Philip Wattel, the owner of two Berryhill Baja Grill locations.
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The lawsuit accused Wattel of groping two bartenders and exposing himself to at least one of them.
Both bartenders complained about the harassment to Wattel, a store manager and a corporate human resources employee, but the harassment continued, according to the EEOC.
When the bartenders filed discrimination charges, the restaurant gave one an unfavorable work schedule and refused to rehire the other bartender, according to the EEOC.
The restaurants had a no sexual harassment policy at the time of the charges.
Statement from Berryhill Baja Grill
"The EEOC has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Houston, Texas on January 24, 2012 against an independent franchise owner, Mr. Philip Wattel, and two restaurants that are owned by him. The Berryhill Corporation does not own, operate or control the Wattel franchise that has been sued by the EEOC and, thus, is not a party to this litigation, nor are any other stores operating under the Berryhill chain of restaurants. As these allegations involve an independent franchise, Berryhill Corporation is not implicated in the lawsuit and did not employ the individuals referenced in the lawsuit who worked for Mr. Wattel.
"Nonetheless, Berryhill Corporation is troubled by the nature of the allegations and concerned to see such allegations in relation to an independent franchise. If such allegations were to have occurred at Berryhill Corporation involving its employees, they would not have been tolerated. We will monitor these allegations against the Wattel franchise and hope that this franchise will expeditiously respond to them given the troublesome nature of the claims against that franchise."