O’Connell, who is of Mexican descent herself, has worked at the company since 1987 and was most recently a general manager. In her complaint filed with the district court in Indianapolis, she alleges that last year her operations leader, Mark Lewis, told her not to hire Hispanics. When he came to her store and saw a Hispanic employee, he said, “Didn’t I tell you not to hire Hispanics” or something similar. “She does have a witness who was present when he made that statement,” her lawyer, Joel Paul of the Ramey & Hailey law firm, told ThinkProgress.
About two weeks later, she says a higher up issued her a disciplinary warning “after asking [her] misleading questions about her operation,” the complaint states. Then three hours later, she was fired, told that she violated the manager code and had an I-9 violation.
The complaint also alleges that she was treated differently than other, similar, non-Hispanic, male employees in violation of Title VII, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, sex, and other characteristics.
Taco Bell has not returned a request for comment.
