Daily Archives: Oct. 10, 2011

You don’t say

Oct. 10, 20114:31 p.m.

“What would have been falling off a log is now . . . falling off a log with a half twist.”

— Ron Coleman of Coleman Materials on the new normal for doing business in this economy

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , Filed under Economy, You don't say | Comments Off

Insurance Partners of Kansas to move to first permanent space

Oct. 10, 201111:08 a.m.

WICHITA — Father and son Jerry and Eric Johnsen are opening the first of several permanent branches for their Insurance Partners of Kansas.

They started the company, which represents 35 insurance carriers, in February and temporarily were in the Equity Bank building at 7701 E. Kellogg.

They’re now moving to permanent space at 707 N. Waco.

“This is the first of four branches we’re going to have,” Jerry Johnsen says. “We’re going to put a branch in all quadrants of the city.”

They plan to do that within two years.

Jerry Johnsen has been in the insurance business for 38 years. He says he likes the flexibility of being able to offer customers multiple policy carriers in order to find the best fit.

Brian Gaddis of BG Properties handled the deal.

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , Filed under Insurance, Real estate | Comments Off

Two former Scotch & Sirloin managers file lawsuit claiming they were fired after refusing to lie for the company

Oct. 10, 20115:00 a.m.

WICHITA — Two more former Scotch & Sirloin employees have filed a lawsuit against Scotch Investment Corp.

Former managers Saprina Almosrati and Lindsey Moate filed a federal lawsuit last week over their dismissal from the restaurant for what they say are issues related to past lawsuits waitresses have filed against the company.

Almosrati and Moate claim they were fired for their unwillingness to lie or falsify documents related to those lawsuits.

In recent years, two former waitresses sued the company claiming they were fired or reassigned jobs after becoming pregnant.

A third employee filed a lawsuit after claiming she was fired for reporting the issue over the pregnancies to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Part of that lawsuit included a claim that the Scotch has wage payment practices that are in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The claim that money had been illegally deducted from waitresses’ pay for cooks and advertising became certified as a collective action.

Each of the discrimination cases was settled and the company has paid the wage claims.

Randy Rathbun, the attorney who filed the lawsuits on behalf of those clients, also is representing Almosrati and Moate in their suit against Scotch Investment.

“We’ve got a situation where they tried to cover up wrongdoing with lies,” Rathbun says. “If they would have been honest from the start and not tried to get people to lie about it . . . it would have been much less of a problem to them than it is now.”

General manager Sonny Glennon says what Almosrati and Moate are claiming is wrong.

“I really don’t think I’ve done anything,” he said. “I didn’t do anything except do what I had to do to run a business, and unfortunately, I’m going to have to listen to what other people have to say.”

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By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , , Filed under Lawsuits, Restaurants | Comments Off