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Cracker Barrel: Their Legal and Ethical Responsibility to Their Employees and Customers Cracker Barrel advertises themselves to be an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) or so they say. According to the employees that worked there it was not. Equitable employment was not afforded to homosexuals who had been employed at the facilities for “as long as”, or even longer than heterosexual employees (Woodard, 2011). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is an agency that is responsible for insuring organizations abide by the law. The EEOC stated that based on the lawsuits, homosexuals and lesbians did not have a separate portion of the law that protected them from discrimination. Although this may be true, it still did not give Cracker Barrel the right to treat people with disrespect or terminate them solely based on their sexual orientation. Another lawsuit that was filed against Cracker Barrel was the accusation that they were discriminating against African Americans by placing them in “behind” the scenes jobs with less pay and also related to the service they were given as customers. Cracker Barrel was accused of either not waiting on customers upon their arrival in a tactful and prompt manner, but they were also accused of serving scraps from other individuals plates. In 2004, the lawsuits were settled. The discrimination lawsuit against the African American customers demanded Cracker Barrel create and adopt a revised customer non-discriminating policy, improve its internal training programs for managers so they will be able better to avoid discrimination but also recognize it, hire a department whose sole responsibility is to handle complaints from employees and its customers (Dept. of Justice, 2004). It also had Cracker Barrel communicate to the public and post in all vestibules a sign that states: “ In the spirit of pleasing people, we invite everyone regardless of race, color, disability or national origin to enjoy our restaurant and country store. Since 1969 we have tried our best to provide food and service in ways that uphold our traditions of genuine quality. If you feel we have not delivered on this promise, please let us know 1-800-333-9566 or www.crackerbarrel.com.” In the homosexual harassment lawsuit Cracker Barrel settled with a $255,000.00 compensation package to those affected. It also demanded Cracker Barrel change its policies for dealing with bad behavior, conduct anti-sexual harassment training for all employees, maintain and support complaints, and also post notices about the settlement and its anti-sexual harassment policies (Berta, 2009). Cracker Barrel has a legal and moral responsibility to all its stakeholders which they were not upholding when their employees and customers received discrimination in their restaurants and stores (Hargrove, 2013). The primary stakeholders in Cracker Barrel were the employees and managers who were being fired and having to fire people because of the policy. Customers are receiving poor service, the local communities were embarrassed because of protests and legal actions, and investors were suffering because of the stocks dropping. Profits were down due to all the lawsuits and cost of making the business “whole” again. Cracker Barrel was not fair or just with their homosexual employees or their African American customers. They were shown to be an unethical organization and this affected not just the company but the communities they served in. Because of these lawsuits Cracker Barrel has revamped their hiring and firing processes. They also have retrained their employees to treat all customers with dignity and respect. The company still is not back to making the large profits they did before all the lawsuits were filed. I believe they may have benefited from these lawsuits but the damage is done. Yes they still have homosexuals working there and they still have African Americans patronize their restaurants, but at what cost. Is it a comfortable working environment? Are people walking around afraid to say something because they may or may not be fired? Do some employees take advantage of the situation managers are in to make sure nothing is done or said to offend anyone? Do the African American customers really feel “welcome” and at ease? Do they feel as though they are being treated equally? Have the employees learned anything from this or do they have such a high turn around that it isn’t as important as it was back then? Who knows. Unfortunately, there are several more lawsuits that have been filed against Cracker Barrel even after losing these two mentioned. Clearly Cracker Barrel has not learned from these experiences. Even if the employees do not value a respectable workplace, Cracker Barrel should. Management is not thinking about the bottom line. They aren’t thinking what impact all of this has on customer satisfaction, the company’s reputation, and profit. Racial discrimination, sexual harassment are illegal. After all of thses legal issues and millions of dollars spent on lawsuits the company must realize that it isn’t worth all the money they are spending. Money cannot undo the emotional and social harms of discrimination, but perhaps it will make employers think twice about accepting and tolerating this kind of behavior. References Hargrove, D. (2013, July). Discrimination against homosexuals at Cracker Barrel. Young Law Knoxville. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from www.younglawknoxville.com Summary of the Cracker Barrel Consent Order. (2004, May). In The United States Department of Justice. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from www.justice.gov Woodard, M. (2011, March). Cracker Barrel Lawsuits. In Study Mode. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from www.studymode.com Beth Amato bethamato36@yahoo.com
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