EEOC Settles North Dakota Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

A judge approved a $1 million settlement for 17 women who said they were sexually harassed by a manager at an Applebee’s restaurant, an agreement believed to be the largest of its kind in North Dakota history, a federal attorney said.

Food Management Investors Inc. and Apple Core Enterprises Inc., the Minot-based companies that operate the Bismarck South Applebee’s, also must implement a training program to help employees to identify sexual harassment and properly investigate complaints. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland signed off on the agreement.

Myron Thompson, president and CEO of Food Management Investors and co-owner of Apple Core Enterprises, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Five women initially filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity, which in June 2010 filed a federal lawsuit. The commission contended that between 2002 and 2007, restaurant manager Mike Cordova exposed employees to pornography, told sexually explicit stories and jokes, made sexual comments to demean and humiliate female workers, and coerced one woman into giving him oral sex in exchange for a raise.

‘This manager’s sexual harassment of his subordinates was blatant and ugly, and it permeated every aspect of life on the job for these women,’ John Hendrickson, EEOC regional attorney in Chicago, said in a statement.

A telephone listing for Cordova was not in service on Sept. 1.

Jean Kamp, an associate regional EEOC attorney in Chicago, said in an interview that the settlement appears to be the largest EEOC settlement in North Dakota history. She said the EEOC started filing lawsuits in the early 1970s, though she said not many have been filed in North Dakota.

Kamp said Cordova is not part of the settlement because the EEOC cannot sue individuals under federal law. The Applebee’s operators were sued for not disciplining Cordova or stopping his behavior, violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

‘This case demonstrates in a rather emphatic way that sexual harassment is still a challenge for women at some of our best known neighborhood businesses,’ John Rowe, director of the EEOC’s Chicago District, said in a statement.