Teh One Who Knocks
09-30-2011, 09:35 PM
by Marianne Garvey and Claudia Rosenbaum - E! Online
http://i.imgur.com/E8ipV.jpg
Melissa Joan Hart is no sweetheart?
At least that's the allegation by an ex-employee of the actress's candy and yogurt company, Sweet Harts, who is suing the erstwhile teenage witch and her business for wrongful termination and racial profiling.
What exactly is the former store manager claming?
In the lawsuit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles and obtained by E! News, Shana Kharineh accuses the Melissa & Joey star and Sweet Harts of wrongful termination, discrimination based on race, retaliation against employee complaining of discrimination, failure to pay wages owed, failure to pay overtime wages, failure to provide meal periods, failure to provide rest periods, failure to pay minimum wage and unlawful business practices.
Neither Hart nor Sweet Harts has responded to calls seeking comment on the lawsuit.
Kharineh was hired as a manager at the Sherman Oaks store in May 2011 with a starting salary of $450 a week, according to her complaint.
The plaintiff alleges that unlike the store's white employees, Kharineh, who is African American, was given a special dress code based on her race and told not to wear black because "'black on black' did not look appropriate."
Kharineh also says that because the store was understaffed June 2011, she was forced to work in excess of 60 hours per week with no overtime pay and no breaks. The next month, she claims, her employers "berated and humiliated" her, criticizing her performance and relationship with her fellow employees and complaining that "when she bent over her underwear would show." She was fired in August and believes it's because of her race and her complaints about her working conditons.
http://i.imgur.com/E8ipV.jpg
Melissa Joan Hart is no sweetheart?
At least that's the allegation by an ex-employee of the actress's candy and yogurt company, Sweet Harts, who is suing the erstwhile teenage witch and her business for wrongful termination and racial profiling.
What exactly is the former store manager claming?
In the lawsuit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles and obtained by E! News, Shana Kharineh accuses the Melissa & Joey star and Sweet Harts of wrongful termination, discrimination based on race, retaliation against employee complaining of discrimination, failure to pay wages owed, failure to pay overtime wages, failure to provide meal periods, failure to provide rest periods, failure to pay minimum wage and unlawful business practices.
Neither Hart nor Sweet Harts has responded to calls seeking comment on the lawsuit.
Kharineh was hired as a manager at the Sherman Oaks store in May 2011 with a starting salary of $450 a week, according to her complaint.
The plaintiff alleges that unlike the store's white employees, Kharineh, who is African American, was given a special dress code based on her race and told not to wear black because "'black on black' did not look appropriate."
Kharineh also says that because the store was understaffed June 2011, she was forced to work in excess of 60 hours per week with no overtime pay and no breaks. The next month, she claims, her employers "berated and humiliated" her, criticizing her performance and relationship with her fellow employees and complaining that "when she bent over her underwear would show." She was fired in August and believes it's because of her race and her complaints about her working conditons.