Companies in Florida and elsewhere should never use the legally protected statuses of their workers as a reason to mistreat or fire them. Employees who believe that they have lost their jobs for that reason may be justified in filing workplace discrimination claims against their employers. A woman who worked for the luxury Hotel Plaza Athénée outside the state alleges that her age and her religion were the motivating factors in her dismissal and has filed her claim against the hotel in a supreme court.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff was the only assistant reservations manager and she served in that position for 12 years. During that time, she claims that she had an excellence performance track record and maintained the high expectations of the five-star hotel. However, she claims that everything began to change for the worse when the hotel came under new management.
The woman claims that her new superiors wanted to weed out employees who were over 40 and Muslim. The plaintiff was 55 at the time she was terminated and a Muslim. Around the same time the plaintiff was fired, two other women who were over 40 and Muslim lost their jobs. Each of the vacant positions were allegedly filled with non-Muslims who were younger.
The plaintiff is seeking monetary damages as well as injunctive relief to force the hotel to amend its discrimination policies. Florida employees cannot be treated differently in the workplace due to a status that is protected by law. Workers who feel that they have received unfair treatment can consider pursuing options to file workplace discrimination claims against their employers.
Source: New York Daily News, "Muslim woman claims Hotel Plaza Athenee fired her because of her religion and age", Stephen Rex Brown, March 2, 2016