Dunkin Donuts Allegedly Fires Transgender Employee While on Leave for Surgery

David ManesLawsuits & Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Employee Files Lawsuit against Dunkin Donuts for FMLA Retaliation and Sex Discrimination.

Jayden had been a store manager for Dunkin Donuts since 2009, and eventually promoted all the way to district manager. Though Jayden was assigned as female at birth, he identified as male, and therefore sought to go through the process of legally and medically transitioning.

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How Employment Law Protects LGBT Employees

In 2014, Jayden legally changed his name and informed Dunkin Donuts about this change. Jayden also informed his colleagues about his change of pronouns. From this point onward, Jayden was allegedly subjected to discriminatory and harassing behavior that included calling him by his former name, repeatedly and continually using incorrect pronouns, and inappropriate and offensive jokes.

Though multiple attempts were made to point out this discriminatory behavior, according to Jayden, Dunkin Donuts did not take any corrective actions.

When Jayden took an FMLA-eligible leave of absence around November of 2017 to undergo surgery related to both his current gender dysphoria and chronic back pain and headaches, he anticipated being able to return to work during the first week of January 2018. Around December 6th, while still out on this leave and recovering an intense surgery, Jayden was told he had been terminated.

Dunkin Donuts’ stated reason for termination was that Jayden had allegedly falsified timecards; however, as a District Manager, Jayden had been trained to edit employee timecards if they were late or early, and the owner had often verbally instructed Jayden to do so when the need arose.

Jayden believes Dunkin Donuts terminated him not just for being transgender, but also due to his complaints of harassment and the FMLA leave he took for his gender reassignment surgery. Now as a client of KM&A, Jayden fights for his rights. KM&A challenges employers who fail to uphold the law and discriminate and retaliate against employees like Jayden.

Full text of this complaint, as filed with the District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, is available at docket no: 3:18-cv-01956-MEM.

Kraemer, Manes & Associates LLC is an employment law firm with principal offices in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, serving all counties in Pennsylvania, focusing on employment law, business law, litigation, and civil issues. KM&A clients include employees, small businesses, parties in litigation, and people with a variety of legal issues.

For more information about this case, contact Attorney Christa Levko at 215-475-3517 or cl@lawkm.com

NOTICE: All information contained in the statement comes from the Complaint which has been filed as a public record with the court. As dedicated civil rights attorneys, we strongly believe in the public value of telling our clients’ stories: violators can be held accountable, and other silent victims can feel empowered to stand up for their legal rights. Although we make every attempt to verify our clients’ claims, note that the defendant is expected to oppose our client’s position, and the court has not ruled one way or the other as of the date of this statement.