A former server at popular Chelsea restaurant Buddakan claims he was fired for being HIV-positive.
Talking to New York Post, 27-year-old Jack Mountford says he “loved” working at the Asian eatery on 9th Avenue; a popular destination for celebs like Hugh Jackman and Bruce Springsteen.
Mountford, an actor and dancer, started working at Buddakan in February 2013. He quickly rose from server to “closer,” selling expensive bottles of wine and turning over tables.
On a good week, he says he’d bring in about $20,000 in sales.
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Last summer, he was abruptly fired, according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court against both Buddakan and the Starr Restaurant Organization.
Related: Is life for long-term HIV survivors far worse than we want to admit?
He’s been HIV-positive since spring of 2010. At one point, he told the general manager and other managers that he needed to fly home to meet with his medical team.
Management allowed it, letting him take breaks so he could inject himself in the stomach with medication.
“I was a fast table turner,” he tells the Post, “and I was great with people. My sales were incredibly high.”
Following a brutal August 2015 review in Eater NY, there was a staff overhaul. In June 2016, a new manager named Brandon Wergeles was brought in.
Following a weeklong vacation that ended June 17 of last year, a coworker told Mountford that Wergeles had organized a meeting with managers to discuss his health.
About a week later, he was called in to a meeting with Wergeles and two other managers, who called him a “huge asset” that had become “a liability.”
They said a patron claimed he’d charged his credit card twice on a $62 bill. And then they accused him of taking an unauthorized vacation.
Wergeles reportedly said he’d “heard other things that were concerning,” according to the lawsuit.
Mountford asked if this was about his HIV status.
According to court documents, Wergeles responded, “Don’t you think I should be made aware of a health condition that could be detrimental to your job performance?”
Related: Was This Couple Fired From a Naples Restaurant Because They’re Bad Employees? Or HIV-Positive?
Talking to The Post, Mountford said he was “humiliated” and promptly fired, but Wergeles “offered to write him a glowing recommendation.”
Then, a manager escorted him out of the restaurant.
Mountford says he “broke down and cried,” and denies that he ever overcharged a customer or took any unauthorized vacation.
“It’s Chelsea and the Meatpacking District,” he said. “I never expected to be in a position where a piece of my life that is so personal and unrelated to my job performance was thrown in my face.”
Mountford’s lawyer Paul Liggieri said about the case:
“It’s not the spread of HIV that [the] defendants should worry about, it’s their spread of prejudice.”
So far, no one from Buddakan has made a public statement about the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.
darren michaels
Why is this news.?
Reactions like the one Mr.Mountford experienced occur on a daily basis..I’m not sure I understand why Mr.Mountford is a story over so many others.
At the same time if the events occurred as they were suggested and the management/owners of Buddakan did in fact terminate an employee due to a medical condition it is a Human Rights violation.
The hospitality industry is unfortunately incredibly destructive and abusive. Managers tend to most often get away with treating staff very poorly because staff are rarely aware of the rights that exist. Employers are not allowed to question an employees diagnosis nor can they terminate for a medical condition. Employees need to better educate themselves of their rights and of what their employers are allowed and not allowed to do. An employer should have documentation of verbal or written warnings that show their having made an employee aware of errors and the discussion of what that employer expected to resolve it. If said employee then failed to follow the progressive action suggested then termination makes more sense. Considerable facts look to be missing from this story including those involved appear not to be educated about rules and regulations of being an employer or employee.
darren michaels
Better educate yourselves or you only have yourselves to blame:
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/illegal-reasons-firing-employees-30209.html
Ari Gold
Yet another case of “I got fired, but I’m gonna file a lawsuit and say it was because I’m gay and/or poz.”
Lvng1Tor
Yet another troll looking to get people to argue with it….yawn!
Alan down in Florida
As if we should pay attention to someone who thinks he is a fictional character.
mhoffman953
Here’s what I don’t get about the story, this line here:
“At one point, he told the general manager and other managers that he needed to fly home to meet with his medical team”
He had to fly home to meet with a medical team? And took off an entire week of work just for a doctor’s appointment?
How many people with HIV have to fly to a different state to meet with a doctor? Can’t he meet with a local New York doctor or a specialist in the New York area and maybe miss 1 day of work? Instead he needs to take an entire week off to meet a doctor
This sounds like a burden on the employer since every time he’d need to see a doctor, he’d have to take a week off to fly to a doctor for a checkup. Why can’t he cooperate with his employer and switch to a local doctor? There isn’t 1 doctor in New York to treat this man?
Goforit
You might want to read the article again. The doctors appointment and the week vacation are two separate events. I realize that as a group, conservatives don’t think the government should be able to have a say in the choice of ones doctor. But because of free enterprise or sum such thing, you think it is perfectly ok for an insurance company to do so. Now you want to extend that choice to ones employer? Conservative “logic” escapes me.