Chipotle sued in US after manager allegedly rips off employee’s hijab
- An assistant manager at a Kansas location is accused of repeatedly demanding that the 19-year-old worker show him her hair, despite her refusal
- The lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency, accuses the chain of religious harassment and retaliation
A federal agency has sued the restaurant chain Chipotle, accusing it of religious harassment and retaliation after a manager at a Kansas location forcibly removed an employee’s hijab, a headscarf worn by some Muslim women.
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged that in 2021, an assistant manager at a Chipotle in Lenexa, Kansas, repeatedly harassed the employee by asking her to show him her hair, despite her refusal.
After several weeks, the harassment culminated in him grabbing and partially removing her hijab, according to the complaint.
The manager’s “offensive and incessant requests” that she remove her hijab, and his attempt to physically take it off, were “unwelcome, intentional, severe, based on religion, and created a hostile working environment based on religion”, the complaint alleged.
Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs officer, Laurie Schalow, said the company encourages employees to report concerns, including through an anonymous hotline.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind and we have terminated the employee in question,” she said in an emailed statement.