In September 2004, the EEOC district office of Chicago, Illinois brought this suit against The Bloomin' Apple Rockford I, LLC, Bloomin' Apple Inc., and Heartland Apple Inc., doing business as Applebee's, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Five individual females intervened in the case, alleging sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Specifically, the women claimed that the defendants subjected women to a hostile working environment, subjected them to differing terms and conditions of employment than male coworkers, and retaliated against females by constructively discharging them.

After three years of litigation and two of the defendants obtaining grants of summary judgment, Bloomin' Apple Rockford I, LLC settled with the EEOC and plaintiff intervenors in May of 2007. A consent decree was entered requiring the defendant to pay a total of $300,000 and to implement training on sexual harassment and retaliation for all employees and for three individual owners of the company. The settlement term was 2 years. The docket sheet does not show any further enforcement; the case was presumably closed in 2009.

Jason Chester - 06/08/2007
- 06/10/2017


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