A woman is suing a Sherman Oaks construction business for gender discrimination, alleging the company owner told her she was “stepping into a man’s world” by wanting to apply for a drafting position and also told the plaintiff that her seriously ill mother should be able to take care of her own toiletries without her daughter’s help.
Maria de Lourdes Cervantes’ Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit allegations against Van Lokeren Construction Inc. and its owner, James Thomas Van Lokeren, also include harassment, whistleblower retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress as well as failure to accommodate and engage in the interactive process. She seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
An attorney who represents Van Lokeren and his company on another lawsuit did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the current suit brought Thursday.
Cervantes, who was hired as the company’s office and project manager in June 2021, alleges that her gender and pregnancy made her a target of shunning, belittling and ostracization, which she says stood in “stark difference” to the treatment male workers received in the workplace.
When Cervantes asked Van Lokeren in the fall of 2021 to allow her to assist in architecture drafting, he scoffed and said women “do not have the experience needed to draft,” according to the suit, which further states that in March 2023 she was denied a drafter job after Van Lokeren denied her because of her gender and informed her that she was “stepping into a man’s world,” the suit states.
However, many male employees were offered many opportunities and resources not provided to Cervantes as well as higher pay and compensation to men for their work commutes, the suit further alleges.
Cervantes mother was diagnosed with a rare degenerative disease in 2022 and the plaintiff asked for accommodations that included occasionally leaving early to care for the woman, but Van Lokeren was disdainful and told Cervantes the ill woman should be able to “wipe her own (posterior) and that she should not have to take care of her mom,” the suit alleges.
After Cervantes tripped and fell over a piece of plywood in the workplace in January 2023, Van Lokeren threatened to fire the plaintiff if she reported her injury to workers’ compensation, the suit further alleges. In June of the same year, Van Lokeren told the pregnant Cervantes to “be more careful next time” when she almost fell down some stairs at work, according to the suit.
Van Lokeren contacted Cervantes on work-related issues when she was hospitalized for a fever and a kidney infection during her pregnancy and Van Lokeren’s conduct toward her after she was released continued to the point he “seemingly asked Cervantes whether she would consider quitting,” the suit states.
Feeling she had no alternative, a frustrated Cervantes resigned in late June 2023, according to the suit, which further states that she has suffered lost income, damage to her career, emotional distress and humiliation since losing her job.