Panera faces lawsuit by former employee

A former Panera Bread Company employee has filed a federal lawsuit against the company,… A former Panera Bread Company employee has filed a federal lawsuit against the company, claiming he was fired from its Forbes Avenue store in Oakland after allegedly refusing to carry out discriminatory policies set forth by his superiors.

According to the complaint filed by former employee Paul Anderson, store owner Sam Covelli expressed displeasure at seeing African-American employees working “out in the open” around April 2003. The complaint says District Manager Wayne Neuf informed Anderson, who was a manager at the time, of Covelli’s displeasure and urged him to accept Covelli’s views on the basis that “Sam Covelli owns the company, and if that’s what he wants, that’s what he wants.”

Anderson continued to assign African-American employees to work in the dining room and at the registers, and encountered separate expressions of disapproval from Neuf, according to the complaint.

In one instance mentioned in the complaint, Neuf allegedly told Anderson that if he wanted to keep a particular African-American employee, he would have to “hide her.” In another instance, Neuf told a different manager to call an African-American employee off work because Covelli would be visiting the store that day, according to Anderson’s complaint.

The document claims that Anderson, who is white, was eventually fired from the store “after [he] complained and refused to discriminate against African-American employees,” and that both Covelli and the Defendant’s management “engaged in intentional discrimination against African-American employees and terminated the Plaintiff solely and directly because he would not comply with this directive.”

Panera Bread is one of three retail stores occupying the ground floor of Pitt’s Sennott Square building on Forbes Avenue.

“The University believes strongly in diversity, and encourages it in its business partners,” said Pitt spokesman John Fedele. “Having said that, the matter in question is a pending legal issue that does not involve the University, and we will not offer any further comment.”

Kevin Murphy, the attorney for the Defendant, spoke on behalf of his client.

“The company obviously disputes the allegations,” Murphy said. “The company believes in diversity and encourages it in its workplace.”

Murphy said that, as soon as the investigation begins, it would be shown that there has never been and there is no discrimination at Panera. He added that he thinks the hearing will probably take place in about nine months.

The Forbes Avenue Panera in Oakland declined to comment, and lawyers for Anderson were unavailable at press time.