Los Angeles Workers Rights Case Study

A Los Angeles workers' rights attorney, Toni Jaramilla recently filed a lawsuit arising from race discrimination in the workplace. Ms. Jaramilla filed a complaint in the Superior Court of the State of California against a burger restaurant, Islands Restaurant, which is located in California. The Islands Restaurant is a burger restaurant that specializes in gourmet burgers, fresh cut fries, and tropical drinks. The plaintiff is a young African American female who worked for Islands Restaurant. The young African American female worked as a hostess at the burger restaurant in Porter Ranch, a predominantly white neighborhood. She was a good worker and performed her job duties well. According to the complainant, she was fired for "looking too black"
because one day she reported to work in an appropriate outfit and Senegalese twists which is an ethnic hairstyle particular associated with African Americans. The court documents further claim that looking "too ethnic" violates the Islands' image policy. According to the documents, one of her managers confronted the young African American female and informed her that her twist hairstyle was in violation of the Islands' "image policy," and gave her a disciplinary write-up. The young female disagreed with her manager because she felt discriminated against for being black. The young female also pointed out to her manager that white employees were wearing hair in styles that violate the restaurant's "image policy" almost every day, but were not written up for it.