
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 27, 1994                    TAG: 9406270091 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B5    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940627                                 LENGTH: FRONT ROYAL

FRONT ROYAL WORKER SUES MCDONALD'S FOR RACE BIAS

{LEAD} A Front Royal woman has filed a $1.45 million lawsuit against McDonald's restaurants, alleging she was fired and her family was barred from entering the restaurant because they are black.

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

{REST} 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.

The suit said the defendants also violated Thompson's constitutional rights by displaying racial discrimination toward her and her family.

``During the tenure of her employment, the plaintiff observed that white employees were permitted the benefits and privileges outlined in the McDonald's Handbook for employees in seeking redress for any alleged infraction of employee conduct,'' the suit said. ``However, defendants. . . denied her the right to use the provision contained in the aforesaid book when she challenged her dismissal.''

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.

``After the workers' comp went through, things started getting pretty hard for me on that job,'' she said.

She said she was a swing manager at the restaurant for four years, but during managers' meetings, ``I was the one who always had to work the floor'' and she wasn't told of decisions made during the meetings.

A white co-worker who had less seniority than she had was given more help from managers in achieving pay increases and promotions, she said.

{KEYWORDS} LAWSUIT RACIAL by CNB