Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 27, 1994                   TAG: 9406270091
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: FRONT ROYAL                                LENGTH: Short

EX-WORKER HITS MCDONALD'S WITH LAWSUIT

In the suit filed in Warren County Circuit Court, Eleanor Thompson seeks $1 million in damages for "intentional and malicious racial discrimination."

She and her family also are seeking $100,000 for "improper and discriminatory retaliation," $250,000 for embarrassment and emotional distress and $100,000 for lost and future earnings due to her wrongful discharge from her job.

The defendants are Nerangis Enterprises Inc., the Winchester company that owns five local McDonald's franchises, N.J. Nerangis, McDonald's Corp. of Chicago, McDonald's Corp. of Richmond and three Winchester-area McDonald's restaurants.

Thomas H. Rockwood, the Winchester attorney who represents the Nerangis company, declined to comment on the case.

The suit said Thompson, who was employed by McDonald's in Front Royal from June 1986 until February 1992, was fired in retaliation for a workers' compensation claim she filed after being injured on the job in June 1989.

Thompson was notified after she was fired that neither she nor any member of her family could frequent any of the five McDonald's restaurants operated by the Nerangis company, the suit said.

Thompson said Friday that she filed the workers' compensation claim after slipping on a wet floor at the restaurant and tearing cartilage in her left knee. She was fired for being late twice to work without a mandatory five-day suspension, she said. - Associated Press