Seventh-Day Adventist Sues Former Employer, Claims Discrimination

STUDIO CITY, CA — A Seventh-day Adventist has sued his former property management company, claiming he was fired from his longtime janitorial job after his manager wanted him to work on Saturdays, which violates his faith.

71-year-old Luis Ruiz-Escobar brought the suit on Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court against AvalonBay Communities Inc., alleging wrongful discharge, age and religious discrimination and retaliation. He seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Ruiz-Escobar says he worked at AvalonBay and its Studio City-based predecessor company for almost 20 years. In December 2018, he claims his boss told him he would have to start working on Saturdays.

According to the lawsuit, Ruiz-Escobar told his boss that he was a practicing Seventh-day Adventist, and mentioned that working on Saturdays was not in accordance with his faith. However, the plaintiff says his boss "did not care" about his faith, saying his mind was already made up.

Ruiz-Escobar went to human resources and was exempted from working on the Sabbath, according to the complaint. "As a result, however, Perdomo began a retaliation campaign against plaintiff, looking for any excuse to criticize and nitpick at (his) work," the suit reads.

Despite the exemption, Ruiz-Escobar was later fired in January 2019, with management saying it was because of poor job performance, according to the lawsuit. However, Ruiz-Escobar claims he was fired because of a "continuing violation of discrimination and retaliation substantially motivated by his age, his need and requests for religious accommodation ... and (AvalonBay's) perception that he was participating in activities in opposition to its illegal employment practices."

An AvalonBay representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

City News Service contributed to this report.