The Wisconsin Equal Rights Division is looking into the firing of a University of Wisconsin-Madison employee who claims her dismissal is a case of age and gender discrimination. The university says she was fired because of outdated ice cream.
Eileen Karre was the manager of the university’s Babcock Dairy Store for 20 years. She was fired last July for violating food safety and quality rules.
Documents say she allegedly sold expired ice cream and failed to enforce store cleanliness, according to The Badger Herald.
Karre says many of the stated reasons for her firing were the faults of other employees or the ice cream production plant.
University documents also allege Karre made two Asian student employees wear name tags because they looked similar and she couldn’t tell them apart.
Karre said, “They look alike, and I’m bad with names anyway. It had nothing to do with their nationality. I just couldn’t tell them apart.”
She also claims she made all employees wear name tags.
Karre says she tasted all the supposedly outdated ice creams personally to tell if they were expired. She says she did have workers throw out some expired sherbets, but that the ice creams were good.
The university has declined comment on Karre’s claims because of the pending investigation.
