Rosebud Restaurants to pay $1.9 million to settle race discrimination suit

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Rosebud Restaurants is forking over $1.9 million in a race discrimination lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Tuesday.

The chain is accused of refusing to hire African-American applicants. The lawsuit was filed by the U.S. EEOC against 13 restaurants in the Chicago area.

The suit also claimed that managers also used racial slurs to refer to African-Americans.

The 1.9 million will be paid to African-American applicants who were denied jobs. Rosebud also agreed to hiring goals with the aim of having 11 percent of its future workforce be African American.

Rosebud is also required to recruit African-American applicants as well as train employees and managers about race discrimination.

Rosebud Restaurants released a statement saying:

For more than thirty-five years, Rosebud Restaurants has proudly served the Chicagoland community with more than 900 current employees. We consider it our mission to treat our employees as family - with honesty and respect - and we are proud of our employment record and the diversity of our workforce. We have not, do not and will not tolerate discrimination of any type toward employees or applicants.

Since questions were first raised in 2010, we have continued to work closely and collaboratively with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The Consent Decree between Rosebud Restaurants and EEOC was finalized today in the best interests of our employees, staff and patrons. We are committed to operating with integrity and conduct business in an ethical and legal manner, and we understand that we all can do more to demonstrate our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.