LUBBOCK and MULESHOE, Texas — The franchise owner of the McDonald’s restaurant in Muleshoe agreed last week to settle out of court with federal regulators for sexual harassment.
Credle Enterprises LLC will pay $240,000 to the EEOC to be split between eight women. Credle will pay another $100,000 and provide to the EEOC a list of all female employees who worked from May 2017 through December 2018.
Credle will remain under court supervision for four years. Credle promises that the manager of the Muleshoe McDonald’s who was the center of the allegations has been fired.
Credle will provide mandatory sexual harassment training to all employees and Credle promises to take action to prevent a hostile work environment.
Technically, Credle still denies the allegations but made an agreement with the EEOC in a document called a consent decree.
In a previous statement, the EEOC said, “The EEOC alleges that this harassment included both physical touching of female workers, sexual jokes made by the manager, and the display of pornographic images.”
At the time of the lawsuit, in September 2018, Credle operated McDonald’s locations in Muleshoe, Hereford, and Littlefield. The lawsuit was filed in Lubbock.
“It took a great deal of courage for these women to come forward and speak out about the behavior of their manager,” said EEOC Trial Attorney Meaghan Kuelbs in a 2018 statement. “Sexual harassment should never be tolerated, and it is especially abhorrent in a workplace dominated by young people who are entering the workforce for the first time.”
