Lawsuit: Bias against 'fat, black or ugly' at Panera franchisee

A Panera Bread franchisee had a policy of keeping "fat, black or ugly" people off of the cash registers and out of management positions, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court today that seeks class action status.

The lawsuit by Guy M. Vines, 21, of Castle Shannon, claims that Panera franchisee Covelli Enterprises discouraged managers from hiring African Americans, and then relegated them to menial, back-of-the-shop roles.

It follows a lawsuit filed in November by a former Panera Bread manager who said he was fired under pretenses after he objected to such policies. Both Mr. Vines and the former manager are represented by attorney Sam Cordes.

"Here there was a policy that we don't promote, nor do we allow people that are black, fat or ugly to work up in the front of our store," said Mr. Cordes today. "If you're black, we don't allow you to work in the front, and we don't promote you into management."

Covelli Enterprises responded with a statement from its director of corporate affairs, Allen Ryan.

"These complaints represent a coordinated attempt by two disgruntled former employees to discredit the company for a profit motive," Mr. Ryan wrote. "The timing of Mr. Vines's complaint ... is suspect in that is was filed only a few weeks after his attorney filed a lawsuit against Covelli on behalf of Mr. Vines's former manager whom ironically Mr. Vines's complaint charges with discriminating against him by assigning him to the least desirable tasks within the caf??."

Mr. Vines, who is black, worked at Panera at the Galleria in Mt. Lebanon from November 2009 through August 2011, according to the complaint. While he was there, a district manager told a store manager that Sam Covelli, of Covelli Enterprises, might give them both a "death sentence" if he saw Mr. Vines working a cash register, because Mr. Vines was a "that" -- code for an African American.