In new court papers, attorneys for the Cesar Chavez Foundation deny a former maintenance supervisor’s allegations that he was sexually harassed by a female supervisor, subjected to retaliation coming forward and wrongfully fired in 2022.
The court papers were filed Tuesday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard L. Fruin in rebuttal to plaintiff Manuel Alvarez’s multiple claims in a lawsuit filed March 7, which include harassment, discrimination and whistleblower retaliation. He seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
On its website, the CCF states that its mission is to “carry on (farmworker labor leader Cesar) Chavez’s life’s work of uplifting the lives of Latinos and working families by inspiring and transforming communities through social enterprises that address essential human, cultural and community needs.”
Ybarra worked at Ybarra Village, a joint affordable housing project in West Adams by the CCF and New Directions for Veterans.
According to the CCF’s attorneys’ court papers, Alvarez’s suit is a “frivolous, unfounded and unreasonable action,” that it should be “dismissed in its entirety and that he should “take nothing by his complaint.”
The CCF lawyers cite multiple defenses, including that the organization “took reasonable steps to prevent and correct workplace discrimination, retaliation and harassment” and that Alvarez failed to take advantage of CCF’s preventive and corrective measures.
According to the suit, Alvarez, 56, was hired in January 2022 as a maintenance supervisor and porter. Soon thereafter, the CCF’s building manager told him, “I’m going to be your toxic wife, that’s how close we’re going to work together,” the suit states.
Two months later, the building manager began asking that Alvarez meet with her in her apartment on the jobsite even though she had an office there, the suit states. During their first meeting in the woman’s unit, she went to her bedroom and changed clothing with the door open, asking the plaintiff, “You’re not married, right?”
Alvarez later complained to the human resources director about the building manager’s alleged behavior in her apartment and her order to the plaintiff not to talk to residents about work-related issues, but the director was “dismissive,” the suit alleges.
After Alvarez injured his right hand and was told by his doctor to temporarily stop using that hand, he told the building manager, who in turn hired a second person to assist him, saying “You might need help cause you’re not young anymore. Just in case you can’t do the job,” the suit states.
Alvarez believed his age didn’t mean he needed help for every job, according to the suit, which further states that he later took three days of bereavement leave after his father died. In August 2022, although still under a work restriction regarding his right hand, he was required to use the hand to perform various tasks, according to the suit.
Alvarez was terminated that same month and still suffers from anxiety and depression from losing his job, the suit states.