EEOC Sues Ground Zero Blues Club for Sexual Harassment and Retaliation

MOBILE, Ala. – Ground Zero Biloxi LLC, which operates a blues club located in Biloxi, Mississippi, violated federal law by subjecting an assistant manager to sexual harassment by one of its co-owners and firing the worker for complaining about the co-owner’s harassment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

The EEOC charged that one of the blues club’s co-owners subjected the assistant manager to a campaign of sexual harassment that included repeated unwanted sexual comments and multiple acts of forced sexual touching. The agency alleges that the assistant manager repeatedly complained about the co-owner’s harassment to no avail. Despite these complaints, the agency claims, the club failed to take any effective action against the co-owner to stop him from sexually harassing the assistant manager. The EEOC further asserts that the club retaliated against the assistant manager by firing her shortly after she submitted written complaints to the club’s chief financial officer against the co-owner.

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sexual harassment in employment and retaliation against workers who oppose such sexual harassment. The EEOC filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi (EEOC v. Ground Zero Biloxi LLC, Civil Action No. 1:25-CV-00173-TMB-RPM) after attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The EEOC seeks monetary damages including back pay, compensatory damages, and punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief designed to prevent such unlawful conduct in the future.

“The EEOC has long been committed to protecting Americans from sexual harassment at work,” said EEOC Birmingham District Director Bradley Anderson. “When employers subject their employees to sexual harassment—particularly at the hands of owners—the EEOC will act.”

Marsha Rucker, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Birmingham District, said, “Federal law prohibits sexual harassment and retaliation. The EEOC is proud to advance the law’s purpose and bring litigation when necessary to further the public interest in ensuring equal employment opportunity.”

For more information on sex-based employment discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/sex-based-discrimination. For more information on retaliation, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/retaliation.

The EEOC’s Birmingham District Office is charged with enforcing federal employment discrimination laws in Alabama, Mississippi (except for 17 northern counties) and the Florida Panhandle.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division; the EEOC is responsible for investigating charges against state and local government employers before referring them to DOJ for potential litigation. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.