Employees and business owners are discussing the culture of Marylou's Coffee with FOX 25 following allegations that the company only hires young, white, attractive women.
According to a letter to State Senator John Keenan from Marylou Sandry, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is looking into the company's job applications, talking to employees about their co-workers' ages, races, and body types, as well as questioning company managers.
Jacqueline Pushee was a Marylou's employee for six years. She tells FOX 25 the company is more like a big family and calls the allegations ridiculous.
"I thought it was ridiculous. I don't understand where they're coming from with that," says Pushee. "My boss was a grandmother. A lot of girls that I worked with in the morning were in their thirties. I'm in my thirties. There was no discrimination whatsoever."
In her letter, Sandry says her company is being harassed by the EEOC and that they've never had a complaint lodged against them for age discrimination or any kind of discrimination. She adds that they feel the EEOC is on a witch hunt.
Pushee says that a lot of men who work at Marylou mostly do maintenance.
"So she does have men that work there, just not at the counter," Pushee says of Sandry.
Lisa Doran has bartended in Hingham for two decades and has worked in the restaurant business for even longer. She claims Sandry would come into her bar and brag about her hiring practices.
Doran claims it was common knowledge on the South Shore that if you did not have long hair and a big chest, and weren't the right size that Sandry wouldn't hire you.
"She used to come in and she would brag about it, says Doran, "And that was the standard thing she would tell the girls. You're not the type of girl we're looking for. Imagine saying that to a 17 or 16-year-old kid?"
Marylou's says it is simply hiring out of the pool of applicants who come to them and that they are looking for quality, dedicated people.
Cox Media Group
