Panera manager claims firing was race retaliation

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The former manager of a western Pennsylvania Panera Bread location says he was fired for repeatedly having a black man work as a cashier instead of a less visible location, though the franchisee being sued calls the claim “baseless.”

Forty-nine-year-old Scott Donatelli says he was denied extra medical leave and fired after double hip-replacement surgery earlier this year, but claims the real reason was that he bucked the race-related personnel rules of Sam Covelli, a Warren, Ohio franchisee, allegedly communicated to Donatelli by a district manager.

Months before he was fired, Donatelli says the district manager told him, “It’s what Sam wants and what our customers wants, they would rather see pretty young girls” at the cash register.

A Covelli spokesman says the franchisee doesn’t discriminate and that Donatelli was fired “strictly” for not returning to work soon enough.