Rosie Catherine Grant,

Manager,

Hardee's #1202215,

7501 Wisconsin Avenue,

Bethesda, Md. 20814

April 4, 1995

Mr. Robert Autry,

President and C.E.O.,

Hardee's Food Systems Inc.,

1233 Hardee's Blvd.,

Rocky Mount, N.C. 27804-2815

Dear Mr. Autry,

Why?

On November 17, 1994 I faxed you a copy of a letter I wrote to Mr. Albert Schitzlien detailing how I had been sexually abused and harassed by my boss, General Manager Luis Moreno in Hardee's #1202215.

My hope was that the company I have loved, sweated for and protected for twenty years would swiftly act to correct the problem and protect me from severe abuse. I believed that my company would respond professionally to a painful situation once they were aware of it.

I received no direct response from you, but your management team reacted immediately. In the last four months:

* A "thorough investigation" by David Roach of Human Resources and District Manager Hakan Yavalar (lasting two days) concluded that out of dozens of witnesses to Moreno's verbal or sexual harassment, not one person could be found to corroborate my complaint.

* Before the investigation started, before the fax was sent out, Yavalar ordered me not to discuss the case with Roach.

* My abuser, Luis Moreno, was used by Roach and Yavalar to translate the statements of the non-English speaking crew members when they were supposedly asked whether he had abused me. (Ninety percent of the crew at that time were Hispanics who could not carry on a conversation in English, beyond a few words or phrases).

* Roach and Yavalar put my abuser back in the store as my supervisor, failing to discipline him or take any action to end the abuse or the extortion of money from a retarded employee that was detailed in my five page complaint.

* Regional Manager Martin Harrell held a private meeting with me two weeks later, taking me next door to Hot Shoppes to speak privately. He told me that Moreno had made a mistake, that he was now branded as a sexual abuser, and that I should "let bygones be bygones". Harrell then threatened to terminate me if I discussed the abuse I had suffered with anyone outside the company.

* Since I made the complaint, Yavalar appears to have conducted a continuing campaign of harassment and retribution against me, I don't know whether Harrell has been involved. A particularly cold tactic has been the use of General Manager Tracey Sheen* as the instrument of his harassment; he obviously believes that I can't prove harassment if it comes from a black female manager.

* I have been written up four times by Sheen since December 1994 (I had never received a single written warning in the twenty years prior to my complaint).

* I was given a negative performance review by Sheen on March 31, 1995; she rated me "less than effective" (again, for the first time in twenty years). Before she showed it to me, she sat down with a big grin and said "Before you read this I want you to know that I gave you a real bad review!" "Oh?" I replied. "Yes" she said smiling broadly, "It's not good!". I have been denied an evaluation and raises for almost three years; now Sheen suddenly gave me a review, but a negative one.

* My schedule was cut by fifteen hours a week immediately after my complaint.

* My staff was cut by more than 50% after the complaint, forcing me to run the store with four employees instead of the seven to fifteen I had before the complaint. This means that I have to work several stations at once during the rush when I should be managing the restaurant; you can imagine the effect this has on customer service and store operations.

* My schedule is changed almost daily, with morning shifts, evening shifts, split shifts and at one point a regular Wednesday 5:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. shift thrown at me with little or no notice. I have been forced to check my schedule daily so that I don't miss an assigned shift.

* Sheen will not give me her beeper number, she will not give me the Meridian Mail code so that I can read store mail, and she will not schedule me to attend the company meetings that all other managers attend. She often leaves the restaurant for hours in the middle of the lunch rush to conduct personal business, leaving me to run the store short-handed. With this example of managerial behavior set by my G.M., I have difficulty understanding what qualifies her to give me my first "less than effective" rating in twenty years.

* Rebecca Stoppelman, General Manager of the Van Ness Hardee's Restaurant, came all the way from her store in Washington, D.C. to write me up in my store with Sheen as a witness. When I questioned this unusual procedure, she said "Mr. Yavalar told me to do it". She proceeded to tell me that my salt and pepper shakers were not straight, and my salad tongs were crooked. "You should go behind each customer and straighten them" she said.

* General Manager Tracey Sheen seems incapable of controlling her temper or handling herself professionally; she screams at me and other employees in front of the customers in the dining room. She usually yells at me whenever I question whether her constant write ups are related to my harassment complaint.

* Sheen is always screaming at crew members who complain about her shortchanging their pay by four to seven hours a week (Mohamed S***** said she clocks them out for breaks that they never take). Sheen says it's not her job to go into the computer to see whether crew members are paid correctly.

* Sheen screamed at Mohamed for half an hour on March 22, 1995 when he complained that his check was short again. They were back in the office, but customers in line and seated in the dining room were commenting on the yelling. She has recently been accused by Mohamed S*****, Juan R*****, Milagro R*****, Elizabeth H*****, Ahushdeet K***** and others of shortchanging their time.

* District Manager Hakan Yavalar probably taught Sheen her management style. He has stormed into the store on several occasions since I made the complaint, yelling, raging and threatening to fire us. On one occasion he was in such a rage that he yanked an electrical cord off the floor, sending the 4"x 5" steel timer the cord was attached to flying toward my head; I had to duck to keep from being hit by the metal timer. Mr. Yavalar never behaved that way in my presence before November 17, 1994.

* On my fifth anniversary with Hardee's in February 1980, my Manager and District Manager held a ceremony in the dining room, where they handed me a plaque and congratulated me with a party, providing cake for all the employees. On my tenth anniversary they gave me a plaque, a party, a cake and free dinner for two at any Marriott restaurant. On my fifteenth anniversary it was a plaque, a party for employees and customers with cake and ice cream and a free dinner for two.

But on November 17, 1994 I filed a sexual harassment complaint against Moreno.

Three months later, February 16, 1995, was my twentieth anniversary with Hardee's. No one said a word. Not Sheen, not Yavalar, not Harrell, not any executive of the company. No party, no "Thank you!", no "Congratulations!" . . . nothing.

Why?

Why would my company treat me this way?

Why would Hardee's be more concerned about shutting up a woman who has been abused than about ending the abuse? Why would the management of my company try to make my life a living hell after I complain about sexual abuse, but do absolutely nothing to my abuser?

Does this corporation hold all women in such low esteem? Is it black people, or more specifically black women, that you feel contempt for? The way this company continues to treat me should be clearly explained to every prospective employee and customer.

Your true corporate policy; let's call it "Harassment, Humiliation and Retaliation", should be posted throughout the store just as prominently as Hardee's toothless "Sexual Harassment Policy", which clearly is not worth the paper it's printed on.

How can you run a corporation in a service industry, a people industry, and care so little about your own people? Your employees don't ask for much . . . the least you could provide for them is a workplace free from bias and sexual harassment . . . if you cared to. An intelligent, professional executive would do whatever it takes to provide such a workplace, even if all he cared about was not violating federal laws.

It breaks my heart that all I have seen from Hardee's executives is a mad scramble to cover the corporate backside; to stonewall, to rationalize abuse, and more than anything else, to punish and humiliate me for daring to complain.

No one deserves to be treated like that!

Half a dozen times over the last twenty years I have exposed corruption or theft in my store to upper management. I have copies of the letters I wrote (often anonymously . . . to avoid the kind of retribution I am suffering now). I have conservatively saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars. I also worked my way up from crew member to manager, striving to do an excellent job and making hundreds of friends along the way.

But after twenty years of loyal service without a single complaint, when I report that a General Manager has molested me, suddenly Hardee's circles its corporate wagons with me on the outside.

Why? I deserve better than that.

I deserve to work for a company that would not tolerate a manager crawling under my desk to bite my leg.

I deserve to work for a corporation that cares about its people and protects them from abuse and harassment. I do not deserve a company that condones harassment or retaliates against me for talking about it.

I deserve to work for a Hardee's, for a Hardee's Food Systems, that makes sure every employee is free from harassment.

After covering up the actions of my abuser on November 22, 1994, your management team (Yavalar, Roach and Harrell) asked me twenty times if I wanted to transfer to another store. My answer to them was "No . . . I am the victim here . . . I did nothing wrong . . . I am not going to run . . . If anybody runs it will be Luis . . . I intend to do whatever it takes to prove that Luis Moreno abused me!"

Four months later, my answer to those who have retaliated against me is the same . . . I am the victim here . . . I did nothing wrong . . . I am not going to run . . . I don't care what abuse you throw at me, I am going to do whatever it takes to make sure that Hardee's never treats another human being the way that I have been treated.

Respectfully Yours,

Rosie C. Grant

Manager, Hardee's #1202215

cc: Ms. Deborah H****** (Hardee's Vice President for Human Resources)

Mr. Albert S***** (Hardee's Vice President)

Mr. Paul K***** (Hardee's Operations Manager)

© 2004 Afrique Publications

E-mail: webmail@afriqueonline.com . . . Web: http://www.afriqueonline.com