Second lawsuit filed against the club in four month.
A former employee of MLS team Chivas USA has filed a law suit against the club, accusing team officials of flouting employment laws, temporarily hiring undocumented coaches and discriminating against non-Latino employees, according to the dailybreeze.com.
Former human resources and administrative manager Cynthia Craig said in court papers that she was harassed by team owner Jorge Vergara and team President Jose David because she was not Latino and could not speak Spanish. The complaint states that Craig left the team in July after a period of prolonged harassment.
In the lawsuit, Craig alleges that Vergara began one of his meetings speaking in Spanish and then said, in English, “If you didn’t understand what I just said then it’s time for you to get a job down the hall”, (at LA Galaxy, with whom the LA Galaxy share the StubHub Centre).
Craig’s suit also charges that, starting in January, Chivas hired four coaches from Mexico who were not authorised to work in the USA. The suit states that Caig was told to add the coaches to the payroll but refused, and team executives instead routed the money through other channels.
Craig is connected to another lawsuit against the team. In May, two former assistant coaches in the Chivas youth program, who primarily worked with players under age 18, filed suit, claiming they were let go because they were not Latino and did not speak Spanish. In that complaint, the two coaches — Daniel Calichman and Theothoros Chronopoulos — said they brought concerns about the new Chivas policies to Craig, but that she did not take effective action.
The dailybreeze reports that several calls were made to Chivas USA on Wednesday for comment, but none was answered.
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