Former Giant Eagle manager from Export sues chain

An Export man is suing Giant Eagle, claiming the Pittsburgh-based grocery chain discriminated against him when it fired him for visiting a gentleman's club while at a convention but didn't terminate a female employee who also went to the club.

Erik Orzechowski filed the lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.

In the suit, Orzechowski said he was hired as manager for a sales systems division in September 2005 and was fired in February 2007.

Orzechowski claims the reasons given for his firing included the visit to the gentleman's club in an unnamed town and his failure to tell his supervisors when a female employee reported an alleged incident of sexual harassment.

Orzechowski claims the female employee asked him not to report the incident, which he had not witnessed.

She was among a group of managerial employees who went to the gentleman's club but was not fired, according to the lawsuit.

Orzechowski claims that only he and another male employee were fired.

In the filing by Butler attorney Neal Sanders, Orzechowski denies what he says were Giant Eagle's reasons for distinguishing between him and the female employee.

Giant Eagle has claimed that Orzechowski accepted gifts from vendors, made charges to a vendor's credit card without permission and pressured vendors to purchase services for him, according to Orzechowski's suit.

Dan Donovan, a spokesman for Giant Eagle, declined to comment Wednesday because the case involves a personnel matter.