LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A former part-time Black Angus Steakhouse server is suing the restaurant chain, alleging she was wrongfully fired in 2023 from the Northridge location for seeking time off to be with her toddler son after the boy's father, her longtime partner, was killed in a motorcycle accident.
Melissa Cerda's Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit also alleges a violation of the state Labor Code. She seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
"Plaintiff was entitled to reasonable accommodation to take care of a young child in a time of crisis after his father died," the suit states.
A Black Angus representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Wednesday.
Cerda was hired as a part-time server at the Corbin Avenue restaurant in September 2022. While employed there, she was in a longtime relationship with a man who bore her a son in May 2022, but who died in a motorcycle accident in June 2023, leaving the suddenly single mother of a 1-year-old boy "distraught and overwhelmed," the suit states.
Cerda's grief prevented her from going to her next work shift that was set for July 2, 2023, but she went to work on her next scheduled shift five days later still under duress, the suit states.
"She was clearly distraught and emotionally struggling," according to the complaint. "She shared with her manager that her partner had been killed and that she was struggling to take care of herself and care for her 1-year-old son in light of the circumstances, but that she needed her job and would work if necessary."
Cerda's manager instead told her to go home and she was not assigned any new shifts at the time, the suit states. However, she was notified on July 19, 2023, that she was terminated effective that date, even though she was entitled to five days of bereavement leave to care for her son, the suit alleges.
Cerda has suffered lost income and "the full gamut of emotional responses" since losing her job, the suit states.
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