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A Restaurant Discriminated Against One of Its Servers for Not Going to Church

<em>Saveur</em> says they serve a great whoopie pie.
Saveur says they serve a great whoopie pie. Photo: sushiesque/flickr

The state of Maine has reminded Moody’s Diner, a place that is “staffed by and frequented by persons who espouse the same Christian beliefs and attend the same church,” that punishing workers for not being gung ho about God is called “discrimination” in legal circles. Alinna Diaz, a waitress employed by Moody’s since 2002, told a panel that, for her, the work environment soured in 2012, when she started dating owner Dan Beck’s son, who was also serving customers at the time.

The logic seemed straightforward to the owner of the restaurant, which Saveur incidentally says serves a great whoopie pie: Because Diaz “has never made a profession of faith,” his son was “not following Jesus,” and so Beck told them to break up or quit. When they chose neither of these options, Beck switched to subtle discriminatory cues — threatening to reduce hours, taking “frivolous disciplinary action” for wearing the “wrong” footwear, once even summoning her to the Becks’ home to chat about a Facebook post if she ever hoped “to work again.”

Beck’s attorney argues all of this was a dad being a dad, you know, and his scary-sounding actions were actually just “triggered by concerns over personal relationships” and “not cases of discrimination.” Although, it’s not really personal anymore; probably to no one’s surprise, Diaz and Nathan Beck broke up a while ago. The state will help her negotiate a settlement with the restaurant. If one can’t be reached, she can sue.

[BDN]

A Restaurant Discriminated Against One of Its Servers for Not Going to Church