Pizza Hut Franchisee Pays $35,000 to Settle Sex Harassment, Retaliation Lawsuit

A female assistant manager at a Porter, Texas Pizza Hut was fired 18 days after reporting harassment to her employer, and that decision cost Ayvaz Pizza, LLC $35,000 in a federal settlement announced this week.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the resolution on March 27, 2026, concluding a federal lawsuit that alleged sex-based harassment and retaliation. Ayvaz Pizza, a franchisee that operates more than 350 Pizza Hut locations nationwide with several in the Houston area, agreed to pay the monetary penalty and comply with a two-year consent decree signed March 19.

According to the EEOC's complaint, the assistant manager ended a romantic relationship with her supervisor and was subsequently subjected to a hostile work environment. She reported the harassment on Oct. 14, 2022. On Nov. 1, 2022, she was terminated after receiving write-ups that same day, despite a previously clean disciplinary record. The EEOC alleged the conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

The agency filed suit under EEOC v. Ayvaz Pizza, LLC (Civil Action No. 4:24-cv-04876) after pre-litigation conciliation efforts failed.

Beyond the $35,000 payment, the settlement requires Ayvaz Pizza to provide the former employee a letter of reference and mandates a set of operational changes: updated anti-discrimination policies distributed across the company, comprehensive anti-discrimination training for staff, managers, and HR personnel, and direct reporting of harassment and retaliation complaints to the EEOC for the full two-year term of the decree. EEOC senior trial counsel Claudia Molina-Antanaitis emphasized the importance of managerial training in preventing discrimination and retaliation, a focus reflected in the breadth of training requirements written into the consent decree.

The case carries a practical lesson for anyone working inside Ayvaz Pizza's network: corporate Pizza Hut's name on the door does not absorb a franchisee's legal liability. Ayvaz Pizza, not Yum! Brands, faces the federal oversight requirements. When a supervisor retaliates against an employee who files a harassment complaint, the franchise owner is held directly accountable under federal law even when the incident originates at a single store out of more than 350.

The dollar figure is modest by litigation standards, but two years of EEOC monitoring and mandated training represent a far more lasting operational burden. The sequence at the center of this case, a complaint filed in October and a termination 18 days later supported by same-day write-ups on an employee with no prior disciplinary record, is precisely the pattern of conduct the agency pursued.