Politics & Government

Burger Battle: Suit Says In-N-Out Discriminates

Chain "aggressively defends" itself against "baseless and irresponsible" charges. Does a tight job market boost age, sex and race discrimination, or just promote complaints from unsuccessful applicants? Vote in our poll.

 

A Berkeley law firm filed a class action lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court Tuesday alleging that In-N-Out Burger discriminates on the basis of race, color and age.

This cases raises a wider issue than the burger battle:

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  1. does a tight job market boost age, sex and/or race discrimination?
  2. or do unsuccessful applicants blame discrimination for being passed over? 

The plaintiffs in the In-N-Out case are two, 40-plus black men from Oakland.

They applied for burger-flipping jobs in Oakland and San Francisco but weren't hired -- allegedly because the chain "recruits, hires and maintains a work force that is predominantly under the age of 40 and/or non-African-American," according to the lawsuit.

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Steve Tidrick, the attorney for the plaintiffs, seeks back pay as well as compensatory damages and punitive damages.

In-N-Out Burger vice president and general counsel Arnie Wensinger said: "We hire from our local communities and our restaurants reflect the demographics of that community. The company will aggressively defend itself against these baseless and irresponsible allegations."

The Irvine-based chain has 210 restaurants in California.

The courts will decide this case.

But we can ask: in a tight job market, when employers can pick and choose, do age, sex and race discrimination tend to rise, or are there just more sour grapes from unsuccessful applicants?

Leave a comment and vote in our poll.

Bay City News contributed to this report.


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