It wasn’t Ralph who was Rotten at Rotten Ralph’s, a popular bar and eatery in Old City.
Instead, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it was Rotten Ralph’s general manager, Sharwin Coates, who fired a Muslim server in July 2013 for wearing a hair covering, saying employees couldn’t wear “hoodies” at work.
The EEOC filed a lawsuit against Rotten Ralph’s parent company, Half Shell Inn Inc., in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on Tuesday, claiming that the company violated federal laws barring religious discrimination when it fired server Tia Rollins.
No managers or owners at the restaurant were available for comment, an employee answering the phone said Thursday.
According to the lawsuit, Rollins was not wearing the khimar, or head scarf, when Coates interviewed and hired her for a job around July 3, 2013. Rollins told Coates, the suit said, that she would be covering her hair, particularly during Ramadan, an important Muslim religious holiday that began the following week.
Rollins wore her khimar during her first few shifts without incident, but on July 9, 2013, Coates was on duty and became “outraged” that Rollins was wearing a khimar and fired her.
The EEOC wants the judge to enjoin Rotten Ralph’s for engaging in employment practices that discriminate against religious practices, to pay Rollins back wages, to compensate her for pain and suffering, to fund her job-search expenses, and to pay her punitive damages.