A lawsuit alleging age and disability discrimination and a hostile work environment at McDonald's in Lamar was filed today in Barton County Circuit Court.
In the petition, Tammy Deherrera claims she was harassed by assistant managers for allegedly being "old" and "slow" and that management did nothing to stop the harassment.
This eventually led to Deherrera receiving less hours, according to the petition.
Listed as defendants are Marshalls Incorporated, franchise owner, and McDonald's of Lamar.
From the petition:
Plaintiff is a 57-year-old woman who began her employment with McDonald’s on July 8, 2024.Plaintiff has performed her job duties satisfactorily and with no discipline since she began.
Plaintiff did not have any issues at work until September 2024 and October 2024 when she had two slip and fall accidents. The second fall in October 2024, was especially bad and Plaintiff was seen at the Cox-Barton County Memorial Hospital as a result in the first week of October 2024.
The doctor requested an X-ray and CT on Plaintiff from which the radiologist findings indicated two compression fractures in her spine. Plaintiff was off work until April 16th, 2025, when she was released back to light duty.
Plaintiff began suffering harassment at work after her return from medical leave.
Adding insult to injury a morning shift assistant manager named Megan told her she was “useless to her” and “slow.” Plaintiff reported the incident to the primary manager.
A coworker named Joseph began telling other coworkers not to speak to Plaintiff because she would report to management following this.
Concurrent to Jospeh’s warning to employees Plaintiff was still experiencing snide comments from Megan, and assistant manager Destini, about Plaintiff’s ability to accomplish tasks and the speed it took her to accomplish them.
Plaintiff asked Destini if she would assist in retraining her due to her extended time off.
When Plaintiff asked for the refresher training and updated training on tasks that had changed while she was gone, Destini stated “I don’t have time to show you what to do.” “I don’t want to do this because I don’t want to.”
As a result of the hostility directed at Plaintiff, she went to the emergency room for what was determined to be an anxiety attack on May 8, 2025.
This panic attack was confirmed at the ER, and Plaintiff was told that her stress, pain and anxiety was most likely caused by stressors at her job.
Plaintiff knew that the harassment, schedule changes, and reduction in hours were directly because of her disability and her age, the retaliation she faced because of her reports of discrimination and hostile work environment, and for making a worker’s compensation claim for the injury she suffered while at work.
Plaintiff also reported a hostile work environment due to inappropriate comments made by her co-worker, Joseph, to both her primary manager, District manager Travis, and with HR representative Mark. Joseph would have inappropriate conversation with other employees about customers about their sexual orientations, use profane language, and say sexually driven comments like, “I will shove this bun up your ass!”
Joseph yelled this last three times so loud that Plaintiff apologized to several customers that could clearly hear and were visibly upset.
Plaintiff herself found these comments to be sexually violent and threatening.
Plaintiff’s opposition to Joseph and his wildly inappropriate and discriminatory behavior came to a head when Joseph and assistant manager, Destini suddenly hit Plaintiff with ice by throwing it on top of her head and hitting her.
After the ice was dumped on Plaintiff it fell to the floor creating a dangerous slip and fall hazard for not only her but other employees.
As Plaintiff looked out into the lobby, she saw Joesph and Destini were the culprits.
This ice dumping incident was made more egregious by the fact that Plaintiff had already slipped and fell at McDonald’s seriously injuring herself.
A complaint was filed with the primary manager, Cheyanne, about this incident. Cheyanne dismissed Plaintiff’s complaints by explaining away that Joseph and Destini intended to hit the employee that was standing in the drive-thru window.
Joseph yelled this last three times so loud that Plaintiff apologized to several customers that could clearly hear and were visibly upset.
Plaintiff herself found these comments to be sexually violent and threatening.
Plaintiff’s opposition to Joseph and his wildly inappropriate and discriminatory behavior came to a head when Joseph and assistant manager, Destini suddenly hit Plaintiff with ice by throwing it on top of her head and hitting her.
After the ice was dumped on Plaintiff it fell to the floor creating a dangerous slip and fall hazard for not only her but other employees.
As Plaintiff looked out into the lobby, she saw Joesph and Destini were the culprits.
This ice dumping incident was made more egregious by the fact that Plaintiff had already slipped and fell at McDonald’s seriously injuring herself.
A complaint was filed with the primary manager, Cheyanne, about this incident. Cheyanne dismissed Plaintiff’s complaints by explaining away that Joseph and Destini intended to hit the employee that was standing in the drive-thru window.
However, the video that recorded the incident told a different story.
This video showed Joseph looking directly at Plaintiff through the wood slats that create a covering of the equipment on the other side.
Plaintiff also pointed out that the drive-through employee was not even close enough for the ice to hit her, making Joseph’s version of events patently false.
It was noted by Plaintiff that the assistant manager, Destini, who was sitting at the table with Joseph, watched the entire incident take place and did nothing to stop it from happening.
Assistant manager Destini denied the incident occurring and had to be shown the video by manager, Cheyanne. Despite the hazard that presented to Plaintiff, Cheyanne did not discipline either Joseph or Destini and continued to have them work with Plaintiff.
Plaintiff was then asked to write a statement concerning the issues listed by manager, Cheyanne. She was told she needed to fill out the statement so that it could be turned into HR. Plaintiff was forced to stay in the room until her statement was completed, which felt strange that she couldn’t take time to gather her thoughts.
45. Directly following this, Plaintiff’s schedule began to change frequently, something that had not been an issue before. She had to start taking pictures of the written schedule daily to ensure she wouldn’t miss any shifts because the changes were so numerous and so frequent.
Plaintiff was also directed by Cheyanne to look at a schedule binder that was kept in various locations and when Plaintiff pointed out the difficulty in locating the binder, the black schedule binder was placed in a common area underneath the front register.
It seemed to Plaintiff that management was setting her up to miss shifts by constantly changing when she was supposed to come in.
None of the other employees have to take photos nor look at the binder to know their schedule. They utilize the app that the business has to know their schedule.
Plaintiff used this app prior to her injury and did not have any issues with shifts changing or disappearing until after she returned on light duty.
On top of the changes to what days she was scheduled to work, Plaintiff’s hours were reduced.
Before signing the form from HR, Plaintiff had been scheduled for approximately 20 hours a week, and at one point after she was scheduled for shifts, she noticed a loss of hours.
She received only nine hours of shift work scheduled during one work week directly following her HR complaints.
The only way she is able obtain additional hours is if she calls in and asks to work or goes directly to her manager and asks for more hours.
These new rules and loss of hours placed upon Plaintiff are a result of the illegal discrimination, and in retaliation for her complaint of discrimination/hostile work environment and her filing a worker’s compensation claim.
Plaintiff was also directed by Cheyanne to look at a schedule binder that was kept in various locations and when Plaintiff pointed out the difficulty in locating the binder, the black schedule binder was placed in a common area underneath the front register.
It seemed to Plaintiff that management was setting her up to miss shifts by constantly changing when she was supposed to come in.
None of the other employees have to take photos nor look at the binder to know their schedule. They utilize the app that the business has to know their schedule.
Plaintiff used this app prior to her injury and did not have any issues with shifts changing or disappearing until after she returned on light duty.
On top of the changes to what days she was scheduled to work, Plaintiff’s hours were reduced.
Before signing the form from HR, Plaintiff had been scheduled for approximately 20 hours a week, and at one point after she was scheduled for shifts, she noticed a loss of hours.
She received only nine hours of shift work scheduled during one work week directly following her HR complaints.
The only way she is able obtain additional hours is if she calls in and asks to work or goes directly to her manager and asks for more hours.
These new rules and loss of hours placed upon Plaintiff are a result of the illegal discrimination, and in retaliation for her complaint of discrimination/hostile work environment and her filing a worker’s compensation claim.
In the first count of the petition, Deherrera, who is represented by Brown, Curry and Duggan, a Kansas City firm, alleges a disability discrimination. The second count claims a hostile work environment existed. The third and fourth counts allege retaliation.
Deherrerra is asking for front and back pay, damages and attorney fees.
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