$5 Million Suit Filed Against Restaurant in Gramercy Park Hotel

A former employee of the Wakiya Restaurant, in a $5 million complaint filed in the New York State Supreme Court yesterday, is claiming that she was assaulted by a co-worker and later fired because she spoke Spanish.

Natividad Alcantara, a Dominican Republic-born American citizen, was hired by the Chinese restaurant in the Gramercy Park Hotel in Midtown as a public area attendant in November. She claims in the complaint that she was sitting at a cafeteria table in the hotel on March 1 when a co-worker "assaulted" her without provocation.

According to the suit, Ms. Alcantara said in Spanish to the co-worker, "Please stop, I did not want to have any problems with you," but was laughed at in return.

A supervisor, Steven Lam, allegedly approached Ms. Alcantara a few moments later to tell her not to speak in Spanish, as the co-worker who had assaulted her had complained.

On March 6, according to the complaint, supervisor Jackie Chang fired Ms. Alcantara, because she had "started problems by speaking in Spanish," the complaint says.

In the suit, Ms. Alcantara faults the Gramercy Park Hotel, the Wakiya Restaurant, their managing corporations, including the Ian Schrager Co., and her supervisors. She claims she faced discrimination and harassment because of her native language, and that her civil rights were ignored. She is suing for $5 million, the sum she expected to earn at the hotel in a lifetime, had she not been fired.

Hotel representatives were not available for comment on the suit. Restaurant employees would not comment.