Chipotle | Boss 'ignored' multiple sexual harassment claims against 'vulnerable' workers

Fast food chain Chipotle subjected young female employees to “egregious and ongoing” sexual harassment so severe that two employees quit their jobs, according to a lawsuit.

Legal documents filed in America by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission allege that the Mexican-style food company “cultivated a toxic work environment when it allowed a male service manager and a male crew member to sexually harass several young female employees” at one of its branches in Washington state between 2019 and 2020.

The legal documents claim that, in 2019, a general manager failed to investigate concerns that another manager, who was 29, made “unwelcome sexual comments, touching, and requests for sex” towards a 16-year-old female colleague.

But the EEOC said that, instead of investigating the matter, the general manager “warned the teen she could be fired for engaging in an inappropriate relationship with the service manager”. The same general manager then continued to schedule the teen to work a closing shift with the alleged harasser. Allegedly, this then resulted in the accused sexually assaulting the teenage worker, and then subjecting others to harassment.