Actress Melissa Joan Hart Accused of Being Racist, Faces Lawsuit by Former Employee

Actress Melissa Joan Hart is a racist?

That’s what a former employee of Melissa Joan Hart (former star of ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’) claims in a lawsuit filed last week that names Hart and several other business associates as defendants.

In the lawsuit, Shana Kharineh alleges that she was subjected to racial discrimination soon after she was hired as manager of ‘Sweet Harts Sweets’ in Sherman Oaks, California in May 2011 for $450 a week.

Kharineh, an African American woman, alleges that she was required to work several hours of overtime without overtime pay or breaks. She also says she was told not to wear black as part of her work uniform because “‘black on black’ did not look appropriate,” according to the document.

The former manager said she was fired in August, but not before her employers “berated and humiliated her” about her personality and relationships with co-workers and laughed that “when she bent over her underwear would show.”

However, Melissa Joan Hart’s publicist says that Hart never met the disgruntled former employee.

“Melissa Joan Hart is the owner of “Sweet Harts 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,” Hart’s publicist said. “Sweet Harts Sweets is an equal opportunity employer, as is Melissa Joan Hart. Neither “Sweet Harts Sweets” nor Melissa engages in or condones any form of discrimination whatsoever. There is no basis whatsoever to these vicious allegations.”

Hart was excited to talk about her new yogurt and candy store when it opened in 2009.