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Another win at arbitration for Bradley Shafer, Managing Partner of our Wheeling, West Virginia office!

Feb 28, 2020 - About the Firm by

A restaurant employer in West Virginia shook up its management team and installed a new kitchen manager, bar manager, front of house manager, and then hired a new general manager from outside the restaurant.  The bar manager and front of house manager began making complaints to upper level management about the new general manager claiming he was using drugs in the workplace.  An internal investigation was conducted and no evidence of drug use was found, but the accusations kept coming.  The bar manager then complained that the general manager made sexual comments to her, but that these comments had been made nearly a year ago and she did not report them at the time.  Nonetheless, the accusations were investigated. Eventually, the bar manager quit, claiming “constructive discharge” and that the general manager was writing her up in retaliation for her complaints about him.  The case proceeded to arbitration where Brad argued that the employer had taken the complaints seriously and investigated them and that the write ups from the general manager were legitimate and work related.  The arbitrator ruled in favor of our client finding that the employee was not constructively discharged nor was she the victim of retaliation for making complaints about the general manager.