Expert: Michael Troy - 3/14/2004

Question
J.W. AND C. L. VITTITOW
695 west blue lick road lot # 55
Shepherdsville, Ky. 40165-7989
(502)-921-2308



March 14, 2004


To Whom It May Concern.
Hazardous Working Conditions and Harassment,

To whom it may concern,

We need help with a situation at Rios Steakhouse located in Shepherdsville Kentucky.(502)-543-8502. We went to the Better Business Bureau, and they told us to go to OSHA. So we are going to put it all in this letter. If you could do something about this situation or at least direct us to the person, we would greatly appreciate it.

There are a lot of things going on at Rio's Steakhouse here in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. For the owner, Jim Myers has got a really bad habit of yelling and screaming at the employees and customers in front of everyone. Like my wife for instance, A week after she started there he pulled her to the back and began yelling at her, then he pulls in the other girls and proceeds to accuse her of not working her share then accusing her of “hustling” the customers by being friendly and smiling and talking to them. She is an out going person and this is her personality, the way she has always been and I or no one else considers this hustling. The other girls said that he made her sound like a prostitute. There are a lot of other matters too.

A doctor, to have pneumonia, diagnosed her, and I went up to her work to take the doctor's note, showing this, and he proceeded to yell and scream at me. He was saying things like she was undependable (this being the first she had missed), because she was sick. Then she had our friend Kay Harris call up there to let them know that she would be off another day and he started yelling at her and calling her a liar and saying that she wasn't off sick that she was faking it and working somewhere else that day. Which was not true. My wife couldn't even get up off the couch. She was only off for three days, and went back to work sicker than a dog. She was still holding a fever of 100.4 F, so that she wouldn't lose her job. She even passed out in the bathroom stall for 30 minutes from throwing up and passing out. All Jim could say about it was get back to work your customers are getting mad that you have been gone so long.

Then a couple of weeks later, he hired a girl with the first stages of Tuberculosis, by the name of Heather. This scared my wife tremendously, but with us needing the money she proceeded to work there. She stayed on and continued to train the girl.

There is also a raising issue which didn't concern my wife right off until one day they were throwing away ketchup bottles of old ketchup away. They just threw them into a garbage can. The manager, Suzy came in and scolded the girls for this after telling them to get rid of it. Then told them they needed to dump out the bottles and separate them into different garbage cans. She then told them that Danny (one of Jim's friend) is paid to go through the dumpster every night or morning and bring back in condiments and he would bring these back in and they would be back on the shelves the next day.  That isn't including the fact that he makes the servers reuse condiments that haven't been opened. My wife told me to think about it, “ Those butters, sour creams; crackers go out to the customers on their plates. If they have a rare steak then the plate is covered in blood, that blood gets on those condiments and then when they go back they serve them to the next customer. That is not including the risk of other diseases like Hepatitis B, etc.”

This could cause a break out of something in Shepherdsville, which would lead to be fatal.

Then a friend of the family told us about her going in there and her son falling and bumping his head. She told us he only cried for a second. Jim came out and proceeded to scream at them, calling her a bad mother and telling her to get control of her kid and all sorts of stuff. They put their money on the table to leave and he continued to scream at them all the way out the door.

In my opinion, this man does not need to own a business where he is face to face with people everyday. Especially if all he is going to do when he is there is drink. The man constantly yells at the girls and tells them that they are wasting his money. It got to the point that he told them they get no more health insurance (which they never had), no more Christmas bonuses (which only the managers have gotten), no more passes to six flags (which they have never seen any of those either. Dana a waitress told him that he notices everything bad, that he never notices anything that the girls do right. He told her that if he ever saw the girls doing anything right he would.

My wife came home furious a couple of days ago when she told me what happened I got sick to my stomach knowing that I ate there. She told me that he had one of his coughing spells and spit fleim into the garbage can, then he started pulling out condiments out of the garbage can right in front of her. Then he told her to go get the other girls. He proceeded to yell at them all like they were stupid and make his usual threats.

Then yesterday my wife finally quit after him yelling at her and calling her every name in the book after she messed up a table after him yelling at her. That is one thing that you don't do. You don't yell and scream if you want it done right. Then he told everyone she couldn't have anymore tables. When she went to ask him about it he screamed at her again. She said it was like seeing Satan himself. So she went up front and proceeded to cash out. He came up still yelling and screaming and she told him she quits that she is leaving. He said you isn't quitting you are being thrown out. She took her money up to the manager, and he told her before she left she better do her side work and she told him no she just quit, she isn't doing it and he swung at her and missed.

You can get a hold of us anytime at www.sweetkylady2678@aol.com or www.Soultaker666@aol.com

You can also get a hold of us by the address and telephone number above.

Sincerely,

C.L.Vittitow & J.W.Vittitow

Answer
Hi there,

First off, let me say that I am not licensed to practice law in Kentucky and therefore cannot provide you with specific legal advice.  For that, you would need to speak with an attorney licensed in your State.  Every State has local laws and precedents that could affect your situation.  I am not aware of the specifics in your State.  I am, however, happy to speak about the situation generally.

Sorry to hear about your wife's difficulties at work.  It sounds like a miserable place.  From your description, however, I'm not really sure what kind of case you are contemplating.  

This is a civil rights forum, and I don't really see any civil rights issues here.  Such laws do not require that employers be polite, considerate, or even fair.  Civil rights laws simply require that the behavior, good or bad, not be any worse to members of a particular race, sex, or other protected category.  In this case, it sounds like the boss is equally rotten to everyone.

You raise some other issues that might be of interest to the local health inspector, and some issues that might be considered assault by the local police, but I just don't see any civil rights issue here.

- Mike