Fox 4 News interviewed labor and employment lawyer Rogge Dunn on a recent discrimination complaint. The claim comes from a former Whataburger employee and relates to her wearing a “Black Lives Matter” mask to work.
The former worker, Makiya Congious, filed the discrimination complaint after a recent dispute in August regarding her mask. A customer complained about her “Black Lives Matter” mask and threatened to report Congious to corporate. Management then asserted that Congious’s mask was inappropriate for work.
Congious said she then asked her manager about giving her two weeks’ notice. The manager allegedly responded that she “was free to go because she was done.”
Since her resignation, Congious filed a claim with the Texas Workforce Commission’s civil rights division. However, her attorney said they want to “give Whataburger a chance to make things right before moving forward with a possible lawsuit.”
Dunn weighed in on this discrimination complaint, saying “free speech protection does not apply to private employers.”
As a labor and employment attorney, Dunn has experience in discrimination, retaliation and harassment claims. For this particular claim, Dunn said that “an employee may have a tougher time with any lawsuit or claim if they quit before getting fired.”
“Whenever you resign, that makes it much more difficult to pursue any type of claim against your employer. So, one key takeaway is you shouldn’t quit because then you have to prove constructive discharge in addition to discrimination or some other violations,” he said.
To read the accompanying article for the Fox 4 News segment, click here.
To speak to the employment lawyers at Rogge Dunn Group, click here.