Asylum Seeking Restaurant Worker Claims That Employer Fired Her After She Reported Sexual Assault by Coworker

The worst cases of workplace sexual harassment involve more than just coworkers making comments about your appearance or flirting with you.  Sometimes they involve coworkers threatening to get you fired from your job or even threatening to jeopardize your immigration status if you do not date them or engage in sexual activities with them.    Non-consensual intimate physical contact, up to and including sexual assault, is a matter for the criminal courts.  If it happens in the workplace, though, you may also have recourse through employment law.  Since sex, relationship status, and sexual orientation are protected activities, and since harassment is considered a discriminatory behavior, sexual harassment counts as employment discrimination, and employees who suffer sexual harassment at work have the same rights as, for example, employees who are repeatedly denied promotions because of their race or employees pressured to retire because of their age.  If your employer retaliated against you after you complained about sexual harassment at work, contact a Los Angeles discrimination and harassment lawyer.

Plaintiff Alleges That Employer Treated Her Unfairly in Response to Her Complaint

In late 2023, a former employee of a restaurant in Paso Robles filed a lawsuit against her former employer, alleging wrongful termination of employment, employer retaliation, and sexual harassment.  The plaintiff is originally from Venezuela, and she entered the United States with undocumented status while fleeing from political persecution in her country of origin, intending to seek asylum.  Her asylum case was still pending when she arrived in Paso Robles in November 2022 and applied for a job at a restaurant.  About a month later, the manager who had hired her invited her to go out for coffee with him after work.  She agreed and got into his car with him, but instead of driving to the coffee shop where he had said that they were going, he drove to a hotel.  She told him she was not interested in him and asked him to drive her home, but he insisted that they go inside, because it was raining too hard to drive home.

The plaintiff claimed that the manager sexually assaulted her in the hotel room, but the manager claimed that the encounter was consensual.  The plaintiff reported the incident to the police, as well as to her employer, but only after the manager continued to harass her at work for several months.  The Cal Coast News website did not give any details about the outcome of the criminal investigation, but the employer sided with the manager and eventually fired the plaintiff.

Speak With a Los Angeles Employer Retaliation Lawyer

A Los Angeles employment discrimination and retaliation lawyer can help you if your employer treated you even worse after you complained about sexual harassment at work.  Contact Litigation, P.C. in Redondo Beach, California to discuss your situation or call (424)284-2401.

Source:

calcoastnews.com/2023/11/woman-accuses-boss-at-paso-robles-restaurant-of-rape/