Chipotle must pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that it failed to address complaints that a male manager harassed a female cashier at the fast-food chain’s location in Prattville.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. and Chipotle Services, LLC, in May of 2022 after investigating the cashier’s complaints.

U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson on Wednesday ruled in favor of the EEOC, saying in a consent decree that Chipotle violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The EEOC’s Birmingham office said in a statement that the Chipotle cashier experienced daily harassment — “unwanted sexual advances, sexual comments and sexually offensive conduct, including sexual contact.”

“Chipotle failed to investigate complaints against the manager or take steps that would have stopped the sexual harassment,” the statement reads.

Laurie Schalow, Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs and food safety officer, said the company is not admitting to any wrongdoing in the settlement, but rather choosing “to avoid the distraction of continued litigation.”

“It is our policy that all employees take anti harassment training, and moving forward we will be providing additional training to the two restaurants involved and to our Respectful Workplace Hotline team,” Schalow said in an email to AL.com.

The EEOC filed the lawsuit in federal court in Montgomery after initial attempts to settle the case failed.

Chipotle must pay $50,000 to the former cashier within 30 days and revise its policy to specifically ban sexual harassment and require new training.

According to the lawsuit, the harassment began on the female cashier’s first day of work in October of 2019, when the manager told her she could sit in his lap. His sexual attempts continued, per the lawsuit, as he repeatedly touched and pinched her on her thighs and buttocks, rubbed his genitals on her, called her “babe,” propositioned her to come home with him, and made daily sexual comments about her body and clothing.

“She worried about her safety when she was at work and was frequently on edge anticipating the daily sexual comments and touching,” the lawsuit reads. “She became embarrassed when the harassment occurred in front of customers and co-workers. Her self-esteem was damaged, and the harassment affected her life outside of work.”

After about a month, the cashier left her job and didn’t return, per the lawsuit. The manager continued working at Chipotle for at least another year, until he was fired in December 2020, per his deposition in court records.

The cashier and the manager did not respond to requests for comment.

Betsy Bulat and Matthew Treco of Martenson, Hasbrouck & Simon LLP and Gary Kessler of Gary R. Kessler, PC in Atlanta represented Chipotle in the case, per court records.

Employees, managers and human resources personnel who work at or oversee two Chipotle locations in Prattville and Montgomery must go through in-person training for sexual harassment. The restaurants are located at 2560 Berryhill Road in Montgomery and 2566 Cobbs Ford Road in Prattville, per the judge’s order. In a deposition in the lawsuit, the male manager testified that he previously worked at the Montgomery location starting in 2015.

“As we see in this instance, failure to enforce anti-harassment policies can embolden sexual harassers, especially ones who are in a position of authority, and multiply the number of victims,” said Bradley Anderson, the district director for EEOC Birmingham. “The consent decree in this case provides the opportunity for Chipotle to develop a culture in its restaurants where employees can work free of sexual harassment.”