LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: An employee of Taco Bell is suing the well-known fast-food company after a Christmas party at one of its locations turned into a wild celebration.
Former cashier Alana Bechiom sued Taco Bell and a franchise owner in Colorado after she claimed she was fired from the company for reporting behavior from the party to human resources.
She claimed that she was compelled to resign after informing human resources about the Christmas party held in the restaurant on December 18, 2022, per Daily Mail.
A Christmas celebration turned into alcohol-fueled debauchery
According to a lawsuit, a Christmas celebration at a Los Angeles Taco Bell turned into an alcohol-fueled wild party where employees engaged in three-way sex romps in front of customers and inebriated employees puked into a bowl of guacamole.
Bechiom alleged that after a supervisor covered the windows and surveillance cameras with wrapping paper, the party ended in three-way sex romps apparently in front of others, as reported by Daily Mail.
According to the complaint, Bechiom went to a Christmas party at her Taco Bell workplace in San Pedro, California, along with her sister and her sister's partner, on December 18, 2022.
The complaint filed on Wednesday, November 15, in Los Angeles Superior Court names her supervisor, Lidia Ruiz, as the reason Bechiom was invited to the party.
Bechiom and other employees were allegedly instructed to bring food for a potluck-style buffet at the restaurant on South Gaffey Street in San Pedro, per the complaint, as reported by the New York Post.
Ruiz is accused in the complaint of serving alcohol to the employees, some of whom were allegedly "overserved."
Bechiom, who had been interacting outside the restaurant for a short while, "walked back into the restaurant" around midnight, according to the complaint, and saw a coworker "having sex with his wife in front of everyone at the party."
The allegation stated that the coworker's wife was "bent over" and "kissing both Ruiz and another co-worker." The coworker was assigned the alias "Adriana."
The complaint does not specify what damages Bechiom is requesting, only that she was "shocked, disgusted and outraged by what she saw and ran outside."
When she went back inside to get the dish of guacamole she had brought, Ruiz and another employee were puking into the bowl, per the lawsuit.
Alana Bechiom allegedly received rude messages after her complaint to HR
A few days later, Bechiom reported the occurrence to both Alvarado Restaurant Group, the franchisee based in Colorado that owns and runs the San Pedro facility, and to human resources.
Ruiz and the other employees who were allegedly participating in the sexual activity were fired by the corporation after an investigation into the complaint.
This did not, however, put an end to the incident since, per the complaint, "someone associated with" Ruiz and the coworkers "retaliated" against Bechiom by "smash[ing] out the back left window" of her car at her home in the middle of the night.
A female coworker allegedly sent Bechiom a series of rude messages, one of which included, "Baby girl I wanna break your face [I don't give a f**k] about your car."
She claimed that a male coworker insulted her via text, calling her a "hoe," a "slut," and "stupid n f**ked up."
Bechiom informed her Taco Bell supervisors and the Los Angeles Police Department about the incidents.
However, the complaint claims that rather than firing the employees who threatened her, Taco Bell and the owner "did nothing about these threats and instead told [her] that they were transferring her to a new location."
In her complaint, Bechiom claimed that her "constructive termination" had breached anti-discrimination legislation and that she "has suffered actual, consequential and incidental financial losses."
