'Gay-grab' lawsuit vs. Sparks
Comments: 21
By BRUCE GOLDING
Last Updated: 10:30 AM, December 31, 2009
Posted: 3:12 AM, December 31, 2009
Waiters at Sparks Steak House say their grabby bosses are treating them like hunks of meat.<p>
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The famed restaurant -- which recently paid out more than $3 million to settle tip-skimming claims -- was slapped with a gay sexual-harassment suit yesterday by the federal Equal Opportunity Employment Commission.<p>
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The class-action complaint alleges male staffers at the East Side steakhouse are "regularly" subjected to homosexual hectoring by managers who grab, pinch or push their privates against the workers' butts, and attempt to grab their genitals.<p>
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The Manhattan federal filing says former waiter Jonatan Aksal -- who allegedly was warned to "keep quiet," then fired after complaining -- suffered "egregious and offensive verbal harassment" from a co-worker who regularly propositioned him.<p>
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The suit seeks reinstatement and unspecified damages for Aksal and other victims of the "hostile and abusive work environment."<p>
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A lawyer for the restaurant, which gained notoriety when Gambino crime boss Paul Castellano was gunned down in front of the eatery in 1985, didn't immediately return requests for comment.<p>
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RSS Waiters at Sparks Steak House say their grabby bosses are treating them like hunks of meat.
The famed restaurant -- which recently paid out more than $3 million to settle tip-skimming claims -- was slapped with a gay sexual-harassment suit yesterday by the federal Equal Opportunity Employment Commission.
The class-action complaint alleges male staffers at the East Side steakhouse are "regularly" subjected to homosexual hectoring by managers who grab, pinch or push their privates against the workers' butts, and attempt to grab their genitals.
The Manhattan federal filing says former waiter Jonatan Aksal -- who allegedly was warned to "keep quiet," then fired after complaining -- suffered "egregious and offensive verbal harassment" from a co-worker who regularly propositioned him.
The suit seeks reinstatement and unspecified damages for Aksal and other victims of the "hostile and abusive work environment."
A lawyer for the restaurant, which gained notoriety when Gambino crime boss Paul Castellano was gunned down in front of the eatery in 1985, didn't immediately return requests for comment.
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http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manh ... z0bLFgRd1P