Karen’s Diner staff accuse chain of ignoring harassment claims

The Karen’s diner franchise is now under fire from its staff as well as disgruntled customers who believe the chain goes too far in its abuse.

Six employees have said the restaurant provides an unsafe work environment, which includes alleged sexual and physical harassment by customers.

Staff also allege they were forced to sign an employee handbook which asks staff to waive pursuing injury claims.

The ABC has reported that six workers in Melbourne have taken formal action against Karen’s Diner, including former worker Kaliya Arumugam who wanted to use the restaurant to combine her passion for acting with her hospitality experience.

She claims she was left open to assault and racism.

"These incidents have ranged from my personal image, like insults about my physical appearance, body shaming, racial slurs and sexual harassment and physical assault," she told the ABC.

Arumugam worked at Karen's Diner for six months.

"I had a group of young men physically threaten me, and once they left, they waited outside the front of the venue for me for about an hour or so," she said.

"There were incidents where we had to call the police and get people removed ... and they just were never really taken seriously by management."

Arumugam claims that management failed to take the allegations seriously and was was told to "leave the customer alone".

"[Getting] a bad review was constantly a huge concern from them ... the public appearance and viralness of the concept was always a top priority," she said.

As for the handbook, Arumugam said, "The manager of this venue at the time told us that we had a deadline to sign it and it was non-negotiable.

"Some staff members that raised concerns with managers and then had their shifts cut and then subsequently were fired."

The handbook had one section dealing with filming that meant employees had no rights when being filmed or photographed. Arumugam found herself all over social media.

"I was getting harassed and heckled and bothered in my personal life and people would think they could treat me like in my daily life how they would treat me at Karen's Diner," Ms Arumugam said.

Another employee was sexually harassed when a man put his hand up their dress. Again, the manager did nothing.

While the chain implemented a red and yellow card system for poor behaviour this was soon scrapped after realising Karen’s was losing revenue.

Young Workers Centre director Felicity Sowerbutts has called Karen's Diner an "inherently an unsafe workplace".

"Workers are regularly racially abused, sexually harassed, subjected to homophobia and fat shaming and threatened with physical violence," she told the ABC.

"Customers have also shown workers indecent photos, workers have been pushed up against the walls and groped, had their dresses up-skirted; some of them have even had their identities revealed online and been abused at other jobs because they've been recognised or harassed on the street.

"And sadly, because of the nature of the workplace, these sorts of incidences are happening every shift."

Sowerbutts has called on Viral Ventures to implement appropriate policies and procedures.

"They've created a work plan, unsafe workplace, and they've actively encouraged hazards as part of that business model," she said.

Viral Ventures operation supervisor Mark Smith has said they have received no reports of poor customer behaviour and refuted the claim that the handbook included an injury waiver.

Jonathan Jackson - 10-11-22