Oasis Legal Services Settles Gender Identity Harassment Case
Oasis Legal Services (Oasis) represented a client in a pre-litigation settlement with nationwide chain restaurant Shake Shack, resolving our client’s complaint of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on gender identity, gender expression, and transgender status.
Oasis previously represented this client in both his asylum and permanent residency immigration cases, both of which resulted in the approval of permanent immigration status for our client.
Our client, the complainant, was hired by Shake Shack to work in their Oakland, CA location, and was trained in San Francisco, CA. Our client was repeatedly misgendered by supervisors and co-workers during his employment, and management failed to take reasonable steps to correct this behavior. On multiple occasions, our client was expected to announce his gender identity and pronouns to staff rather than rely on management to correct discriminatory behavior. Ultimately, our client felt that he could not endure any further harassment, and he left the company.
Oasis assisted the complainant in drafting and filing a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), consulting with outside legal experts, corresponding with Shake Shack and CRD, navigating mediation, and agreeing to the settlement terms. The settlement was finalized on January 31, 2023.
“We are very grateful for this positive resolution, but there is much more work to be done,” said Ari Jones, Oasis’s Residency and Naturalization Programs Director, who represented our client in this matter. “While misgendering and other forms of harassment are prohibited under California law, it is difficult for employees to feel safe coming forward, especially given the rise of hateful anti-transgender rhetoric. As a transgender person, I am thankful that our client trusted us with his case, and that Shake Shack is taking steps to prevent this type of incident from happening in the future.”
In addition to providing $20,000 to our client, Shake Shack has agreed to update its policies relating to retaliation, harassment, discrimination, and bullying; to provide additional training on gender identity and expression to employees; and to report to CRD all complaints of gender identity and expression discrimination or harassment from the Bay Area locations in question for a one-year period.
For further information regarding this settlement, please refer to this statement from CRD: https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2023/02/2023.02.13-ShakeShacksettlementPR.pdf