A woman is suing a Sherman Oaks nail salon, alleging she was fired for getting pregnant and that she was denied meal and rest breaks.
The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed Monday by Shana Wilson of Gardena against Nail Garden and her supervisors, Marc and Sally Awad, comes amid published reports in New York about alleged abuses of employees at similar businesses in that state.
Wilson’s allegations include wrongful termination, pregnancy discrimination and harassment, failure to prevent harassment, retaliation, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress and other employment-related causes of action.
The suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages as well as an injunction preventing Nail Garden from “engaging in each of the practices complained of” in the lawsuit.
A representative for Nail Garden could not be immediately reached.
According to the lawsuit, Wilson was hired as a licensed cosmetologist by the Awads in February 2014 after performing a demonstration of her nail work. Her duties included styling hair and doing manicures, pedicures and waxing, the suit states. She routinely received praise from her employer as well as her clients, the suit states.
“Wilson’s excellent hairstyling was routinely featured on Nail Garden’s social media account,” according to the lawsuit.
But Wilson alleges that she was harassed when she became pregnant three months after being hired. She began experiencing stomach pains from bending over to do pedicures, prompting her to ask Sally Awad to stop assigning her such chores, the suit states.
Last June, Sally Awad began criticizing Wilson’s performance and reduced her work week from 40 to 32 hours even though she continued having her regular clients, the suit alleges.
“In her defense, Wilson asked if her services were so poor, why her clients would give her tips amounting to $10 to $30?” the suit states.
A week after Wilson inquired about taking pregnancy leave in August, Marc Awad told her she was being fired because of “several complaints on her nail work,” the suit alleges.
“Wilson … believes and alleges that (the firing) was a pretext due to Wilson’s pregnancy and plan to take pregnancy-related leave,” the suit states.
Wilson also maintains that while working at Nail Garden her supervisors told her to take clients during breaks and that she was not provided an itemized statement of hours worked and wages earned.
“Defendants deliberately failed to compensate her for all hours worked,” the suit alleges.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced he is establishing a task force to investigate whether salons are short-changing employees and failing to provide safe working conditions. The task force will have authority to recover unpaid wages, issue fines and try to close salons violating the law.
— City News Service