BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - Xenia Hernandez filed a complaint on September 7 in Suffolk County Superior Court against Modern Pastry for discrimination.
According to the complaint, Hernandez is a woman in her 20s and identifies her race as Hispanic and her national origin as El Salvadoran who worked for Modern Pastry. The owners of Modern Pastry are Italian-American, and other employees that worked at the business included Italian-Americans, Albanians and Hispanic Americans and spoke various languages.
Pina Picariello, who is Italian-American, had an ownership interest in Modern Pastry, permitted various white employees, such as Albanian and Italian employees, to speak their native tongues in the workplace, the suit says. Hernandez alleges that when she, or other Spanish-speaking employees would speak Spanish, Picariello would become hostile and agitated and tell them to “Speak American,” and “This is America; you have to speak American.”
It is alleged that Picariello would also grab them physically to chide them for speaking Spanish, saying she did not want them speaking Spanish in front of customers. Hernandez alleges that on Sept. 30, 2018, she was cleaning up to finish up her shift and someone in the back was speaking Spanish and Picariello became visibly upset, speaking to an Italian-American manager, Eddie, in Italian.
Picariello allegedly told Hernandez, “You too, American only. We are in America.” When Hernandez questioned as to why, Picariello allegedly refused to answer, merely repeating, “We speak American.” Eddie, the manager, told Hernandez to leave early, the suit says. Hernandez called off the next day sick, and she was not scheduled anymore shifts.
Hernandez seeks compensation for economic losses, the monetary award for emotional damages, attorney's fees, cost of suit, exemplary and punitive damages. Hernandez is represented by Alan Crede.