By Jenna Greene, From The Litigation Daily

Sometimes you should just settle.

Take the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s recent sexual harassment lawsuit against a Subway franchise in upstate New York.

The gist of the July 21 complaint is that the store manager offered two 17-year-old girls jobs as “sandwich artists”—apparently that’s what sandwich makers are called at Subway—in exchange for sex.

The EEOC’s case seems all but airtight: The hiring manager sent texts to the girls with messages like “Bang my brains out the job is yours” and “Do you want to f-ck?” The manager, who the EEOC said was about 26 or 27, even sent one girl a selfie photo, leaving little doubt of his identity.

The EEOC in its complaint takes pains to stress that it tried to settle with the franchise owner, Draper Development, prior to filing suit (failure to conciliate has been a major stumbling block for the agency).

Draper hasn’t filed an answer, and a representative could not be reached for comment, but it’s hard to conjure up a successful defense. The manager had the power to hire and fire, and he was not exactly subtle, texting, for example, “Would you sleep with the manager to get this job?”

It may be that the EEOC knows it’s got a winning hand, and is making demands so exorbitant that Draper feels it has no choice but to go to court. The agency in its complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, asks for back pay (which won’t add up to much for two jobs at Subway), new training programs and punitive damages—not surprising given the nature of the allegations.

But it also wants damages for potential medical expenses, without explaining how that might relate to receiving text messages, and for “emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life, embarrassment and humiliation.”

As the mother of two teenagers, I’m indignant that a sleazy manager would proposition the girls. At the same time, if a lewd text message is grounds for monetary damages for emotional suffering, then just about every teen in America would have a cause of action against someone.

Photo by Marek Slusarczyk

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