CKE Sued by Executive Who Failed Drug Test

CKE Restaurants Inc., the parent of the Carl’s Jr. fast-food chain, is being sued by a marketing executive it fired after he tested positive for cocaine. Stephen Nollau, who worked for 11 days as head of marketing for the Hardee’s restaurant chain, a unit of Anaheim-based CKE, is suing for loss of a salary that would have topped $170,000 annually as well as punitive damages and compensation for mental distress. Nollau alleges he’d received no notice of CKE’s “zero tolerance” drug policy before he arrived for his first day of work last Oct. 13 and was told to submit to a drug test. By then, he had already made arrangements to move his family across the country, sell his business and had his wife quit her job as a teacher, he said. Nollau said he told CKE executives that he experimented with cocaine before he was hired and had no intention of using it again. His offers to submit to polygraph testing about when he’d used drugs and undergo drug testing throughout his CKE career were rebuffed, Nollau said.