Say It Ain't So, Sabrina—Melissa Joan Hart Sued for Racial Profiling?!

Actress is is caught in a major scandal involving her candy and yogurt company, Sweet Harts

By Claudia Rosenbaum, Marianne Garvey Sep 30, 2011 7:29 PMTags
Melissa Joan HartNoel Vasquez/Getty Images

Melissa Joan Hart is no sweetheart?

At least that's the allegation by an ex-employee of the actress's candy and yogurt company, Sweet Harts, who is suing the erstwhile teenage witch and her business for wrongful termination and racial profiling.

What exactly is the former store manager claming?

In the lawsuit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles and obtained by E! News, Shana Kharineh accuses the Melissa & Joey star and Sweet Harts of wrongful termination, discrimination based on race, retaliation against employee complaining of discrimination, failure to pay wages owed, failure to pay overtime wages, failure to provide meal periods, failure to provide rest periods, failure to pay minimum wage and unlawful business practices.

Hart's camp reached out to E! News, saying, "Melissa Joan Hart is the owner of Sweetharts Sweets in Sherman Oaks, California. While the shop was her vision, Melissa does not currently function in a day-to-day operational capacity, and has never met Shana Kharineh. Sweet Harts Sweets is an equal opportunity employer, as is Melissa Joan Hart. Neither Sweetharts Sweets nor Melissa engages in or condones any form of discrimination whatsoever. There is no basis whatsoever to these vicious allegations."

Kharineh was hired as a manager at the Sherman Oaks store in May 2011 with a starting salary of $450 a week, according to her complaint.

The plaintiff alleges that unlike the store's white employees, Kharineh, who is African American, was given a special dress code based on her race and told not to wear black because  "'black on black' did not look appropriate."

Kharineh also says that because the store was understaffed June 2011, she was forced to work in excess of 60 hours per week with no overtime pay and no breaks. The next month, she claims, her employers "berated and humiliated" her, criticizing her performance and relationship with her fellow employees and complaining that "when she bent over her underwear would show." She was fired in August and believes it's because of her race and her complaints about her working conditons.