A Manhattan woman says she was fired from her job at a Chipotle on the Upper East Side because she took time off to recover from an attack at the hands of her abusive boyfriend.
Natasha Velez, who filed a lawsuit against the burrito chain on Monday in Manhattan Federal Court, says she fractured her index finger when her then-boyfriend choked her in her home in January 2013.
Velez, 27, says she was sidelined for two weeks by doctors’ orders, but returned ready to work.
Her manager had other ideas, however.
“He just sat me down and said, ‘I’m going to have to let you go,'” she told the Daily News.
“I’m like, ‘Let go? I don’t understand why.’ And he said, ‘Oh, well, you have too many outside issues. There’s nothing wrong with your job performance. It’s just your situation outside work.”
Velez, who has a 3-month-old daughter named Nala, says she has since fallen on hard times.
“It’s been a bumpy ride since losing my job,” she said, rocking Nala in her arms in her spare but neat East Harlem home. “Before, I was consistent with paying my bills. Now I’m in housing court for my apartment. I have a newborn baby. I’m struggling to provide for her, let alone myself.”
Velez says she called the cops after the domestic violence incident and received treatment at a local emergency room. Her finger was put in a splint.
She says she brought the police report and a record of her ER visit to her next scheduled shift and told her manager she would be unable to work until at least her next check-up, a week later.
When her doctor told her to take a second week off because her finger needed more time to heal, Velez says she informed her employer and received approval from the manager. Her work duties included chopping vegetables, making guacamole and working the register, according to the lawsuit.
“I went about it the right way to let my job know what happened,” she said. “When I went to my follow-up appointment, they told me the finger needed to do some more healing.”
“I explained that to him and he said, ‘No problem,'” Velez added. “I felt comfortable that … I would return back to work and everything was going to be fine.”
In reality, there was a pink slip waiting for her at the Third Ave. and 84th St. eatery.
Police say Velez reported the domestic incident on Jan. 3, 2013, telling them her then-boyfriend tried to choke her and broke her finger in the process. There was an arrest in the case on June 6, 2013, according to cops.
Chipotle declined to comment, and messages for the manager that were left with co-workers were not returned Monday.
Velez’s domestic violence and disability discrimination lawsuit seeks back wages, a new job and unspecified damages.
She said she had once thought she had a bright future with the company.
“I was talking to [the manager] about starting training to move up,” she told The News. “I wanted to be a manager. I really enjoyed that company. I didn’t want to leave Chipotle.”
“I didn’t feel that it was right for them to do that to me, especially at that time with me going through a domestic violence issue,” she added. “I just felt like that was wrong.”
Velez says her manager knew about her troubled relationship because the boyfriend had previously come into the restaurant and she had asked the manager to make him leave.
Velez is now relying on welfare while looking for a new job, with help from a city program called Workforce1, she says.
“I don’t like being on public assistance,” she said. “It makes me feel depressed.”
With Rocco Parascandola
