Matthew Purushotham
Thu, 04/27/2023
A female former “bud tender” and shift lead for Ice Kream LLC, a cannabis company, sued the company, as well as UTR Management LLC, for sex discrimination, violation of the California Equal Pay Act, whistleblower retaliation, constructive discharge, and 13 other causes of action. The lawsuit, filed on April 12, 2023 in the California Superior Court for Los Angeles County, alleges that the defendants claimed to not have enough money to increase her pay but gave raises to two of the plaintiff’s male co-workers. In addition to denying the plaintiff pay increases, the plaintiff alleges that the defendants promoted multiple less qualified male employees (with less seniority) over the plaintiff. Managers at the dispensary allegedly told the plaintiff that she was “not attractive enough to be promoted” (despite having previously told her that she was going to be promoted to manager).
The plaintiff also contends that the defendants unlawfully denied her overtime and retaliated against her for raising complaints about the defendants’ failure to promote her or increase her pay. Ultimately, the plaintiff asserts that the defendants were preparing to fire her for bogus reasons. She felt she had no choice but to quit and was constructively terminated based on her sex and gender and for raising complaints about not being promoted.
McGillivary Steele Elkin has practice areas involving cannabis employees’ workplace rights, unpaid overtime, misclassification of workers, and sex discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
If you are concerned that your employer has violated your rights in any of these areas, contact us at info@mselaborlaw.com.
