New York CNN —The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued a North Carolina Hooters restaurant for allegedly discriminating against Black or darker-skinned “Hooters Girls,” the federal agency announced Thursday. In March 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Greensboro, North Carolina, Hooters temporarily laid off around 43 employees, dubbed “Hooters Girls” by the restaurant chain. There was a “marked shift in the racial composition of the restaurant’s Hooters Girls workforce,” when employees were called back in, according to the EEOC release. The complaint also alleged that the darker-skinned Hooters Girls “experienced racial hostility and observed preferential treatment of White employees while employed at the restaurant” and received less-lucrative shifts. The Greensboro restaurant had no comment and directed CNN to the company’s public relations department.

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