TGI Fridays has been under fire after replacing nearly its entire black waitstaff with light-skinned workers — mostly Hispanics — at a popular restaurant chain in New York, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Bronx Supreme Court.
The controversy started when one major TGI Friday chain in Midtown, Manhattan shut down and opened a new location just a few blocks away in December. Yet, after the chain’s big reopening, only one black staff member from the original TGI Fridays location was rehired, ex-employees claim in a class action discrimination suit.
When the workers complained about wanting their jobs back, a restaurant manager said he preferred Hispanic staffers because they “work harder,” the suit alleges.
“It was their opinion that black people were lazy,” charged plaintiff Lisa Baker, 48. She told The New York Daily News that her old manager claimed her former waitress job was unavailable at the new location. “We weren’t even given a chance,” she said.
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BMWK, do you think their claims are valid?