Thread: Chef presses case against O'Charley's

Chef presses case against O'Charley's
Claims he lost work hours to illegal workers
DEBORAH HIRSCH

A Charlotte chef is heating up a reverse discrimination case against a former employer this spring.

Kyle Pruitt claims that the University City O'Charley's franchise where he worked in 2005 unfairly fired him after he complained about losing work hours to illegal Latino workers.

O'Charley's would not comment on the case but the former franchise general manager disputed Pruitt's claims.

Both sides settled on an arbitrator in late March and the hearing could come anytime in the next few months.

It's been more than two years since Pruitt, 35, left O'Charley's and went on to a catering job.

But Pruitt says he won't give up out of principle. He said he worries that many restaurants favor undocumented workers because they can get more labor for less money. That's not right for the immigrants, he said, or for the citizens who end up with lower-paying jobs or no jobs at all.

"I see highly skilled people who are not getting the pay they deserve because it's driven down by under-skilled workers," he said. "I've seen really good people leave the industry because they cannot support their families."

Pruitt initially sued O'Charley's in June 2007 but the suit was dismissed because he had signed an arbitration agreement as a condition of employment. That meant employees couldn't sue in open court. Instead, legal complaints must come before a mutually agreed-upon arbitrator in a private hearing.

Pruitt began working at an O'Charley's in Raleigh in 2002, where he said he never had a problem getting a full 40 hours a week or more. In February 2005, he transferred to the University City location after moving to Charlotte to study cooking at Johnson & Wales University.

There, he said, 10 of the 13 kitchen workers were Latino. According to the original lawsuit, it was common knowledge that several were illegal and worked extra shifts under different names.

"Managers would come over to Hispanic workers and say, `You're about to hit 40 hours.' And then they'd go clock out, then punch four digits and go back to work," Pruitt said. "Basically, you've got three guys taking up six jobs on six illegal Social Security cards."

One worker once got injured and had to go to the hospital, but someone had to come back to the restaurant to see what name he had been working under in order to fill out the medical forms, Pruitt said.

In late March 2005, Pruitt said he began questioning why managers weren't checking the workers' legal status.

"It seemed the more vocal I got, the more my hours got smaller."

He pointed at paycheck records showing how he'd started with 43 to 58 hours per week, then dropped below 40 hours. One week, he was down to 13.

Pruitt said he began reporting the company to federal authorities. A log from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement tip line verifies his call on June 9, 2005.

The lawsuit said he was fired later that month after complaining to managers about employing illegal workers.

But then general manager Bill Baez, who now works at a different restaurant chain, said Pruitt was given fewer hours and eventually fired because of his performance and behavior.

"I don't care Latino, whatever nationality, all I'm concerned about is performance," Baez said. "We talked about a couple of performance issues and his attitude and anger management and I felt like he wasn't interested in what I had to say."

Baez said he wasn't aware of illegal employees working there. He said the company checked two forms of identification required when hiring.

"If you have those two documents and they look like they haven't been fraudulently made, then you've covered what you need to do," he said.

But Chris Prescott, another former kitchen manager who worked there from April 2003 to December 2006, backed Pruitt's claims. In a sworn statement for the arbitration case, he said he'd "frequently observed" workers using false documents and was once told to ask an applicant to get another Social Security card after the first one didn't check out.

"It was so open that often these undocumented workers would voluntarily tell me that they would get an illegal or false Social Security card for themselves or other relatives," Prescott wrote. He could not be reached by phone.

O'Charley's spokeswoman Jeanne Ludington said she couldn't say whether immigration officials had investigated the University City restaurant because it's against company policy to talk about employees.

Immigration officials also would not comment on what action, if any, they took on Pruitt's call.
http://www.charlotte.com/109/story/579680.html

Sounds like a boycott and some phone calls to ICE are in order. Or better yet, a trip to O'Charley's wearing fatigues with the old INS caps and a clipboard.

I usually eat at O'Charley's when I visit Charlotte. You can bet I won't again! I'm glad this guy is bringing suit. Many more Americans should do the same!

here's the email addy for o'charley's. I've already let them know we won't darken their doorway again until they stop hiring illegal aliens.

http://www.ocharleys.com/generalcomment/

O'Charley's

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