[Source: Restaurant Dive]

JDKD Enterprises, a limited partnership that owns and operates multiple McDonald’s restaurants in New Jersey, will pay $100,000 to settle U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission allegations it discriminated against a grill cook with autism spectrum disorder, the agency announced Dec. 16 (EEOC v. JDKD Enterprises, No. 21-cv-16441 (D. N.J. Sept. 2, 2021)). 

The grill cook had worked for McDonald’s since 1981, according to the complaint. In 2008, he began working at the Deptford, New Jersey, location. JDKD Enterprises assumed ownership of the location in 2018. Two months later, while working, the employee became agitated and raised his voice, a common side effect of his disability, the complaint alleged. “Defendant did not engage in a good faith interactive process to address [the plaintiff]’s autism spectrum disorder or its manifestations, or to determine whether a reasonable accommodation was available,” the complaint said, but rather fired him the same day.

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