A new mother says she lost her job because she had a baby and now she’s taking the matter to court.
Little Eros Castillo is his mom’s pride and joy. But Marzena Castillo says her pregnancy was a nightmare.
“It’s supposed to be the best time of my life, when I’m pregnant, and it wasn’t,” she says.
That’s because, from the day she announced her pregnancy to her bosses at Chicago’s popular Northside Bar & Grill, she says their working relationship went downhill. She says she was picked on because of her pregnancy.
It was Castillo’s second stint since 2004 working at the Bucktown restaurant, this time as a manager and a server. After her announcement, she says one of her bosses called her in for a talk, suggesting they were disappointed that she became pregnant.
After Eros was born, she says there were nasty comments about breastfeeding. Months later, she got the ax.
“I trained a girl Friday, Saturday night, Sunday morning. Monday I was off and Tuesday I was fired,” Castillo says.
She says she wasn’t told why.
Castillo filed a lawsuit this week, claiming discrimination.
Her attorney, Eugene Hollander, says employers can fire someone with cause but they can’t do so for discrimination.
“That’s clearly what happened here,” he says.
Not so, one of Northside owners told CBS 2.
“We would never fire anyone because they were pregnant and we didn’t. We support women who have families and continue to do so,” co-owner Cyril Landise said in a written statement.
He declined to say why Castillo is no longer employed at the restaurant.