https://mynewsla.com/business/2021/05/24/man-alleges-food-company-favored-korean-employees-over-others/

Man Alleges Food Company Favored Korean Employees Over Others

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A gay Latino man is suing his former employer, alleging the Wilshire area food making business wrongfully fired him in 2020 due to his sexual orientation, his ethnicity in a company that he maintains favored Korean-Americans and because he sought leave to deal with his migraine headaches.

Ommar Rivas’ Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit against CJ America Inc. alleges retaliation, discrimination and failure to accommodate. He seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages in the suit brought Thursday.

A CJ America representative could not be reached for comment.

Rivas was hired in April 2019 as the company’s learning and organizational development manager at the firm located in the 5700 block of Wilshire Boulevard, the suit states.

The company hired mostly Korean-Americans and Rivas believes management treated those employees more favorably and discriminated against non- Korean personnel, including the plaintiff, who does not speak or understand Korean, the suit states.

“(Rivas) was at times referred to as a non-Korean,” the suit states.

After Rivas told a supervisor who sent him an email written in Korean that he could not understand the contents, the boss told him, “Haven’t you ever heard of Google translate?,” the suit states.

When a non-Korean co-worker asked Rivas if he was gay, he confirmed that he was, the suit states. She then told him she was at a dinner with the chief human resources officer, who said he was “uncomfortable with gay people,” the suit states.

Rivas’ became an employee relations manager in April 2019 and his boss was Annie Lee, who ignored his requests for job training even though she was responsive to similar requests from Korean-American employees, the suit states.

Rivas began investigating discrimination complaints by some Hispanic employees, but he was ordered to stop without explanation, the suit states.

After Rivas returned from Brazil in February 2020, got engaged and put a photo of his future spouse on his desk, he began receiving “critical emails” from Lee, the suit states. Rivas responded by disputing what she was saying and complaining she was discriminating against him, the suit states.