Harlem Church Discriminated Against Hispanic Workers: Lawsuit

HARLEM, NY — A group of Hispanic employees at a landmark church in Harlem were fired because of their race and deprived of wages and severance pay, according to a lawsuit filed by the workers last week.

Workers Nicolas Guadalupe Ramirez, Estela Rocio Ramirez and Rosalinda Rosales filed a class-action lawsuit last Monday against the Archdiocese of New York and the Church of St. Joseph of the Holy Family on 125th Street, where they had worked in custodial jobs until last summer.

Starting in February 2020, the church fired 18 workers, including all but one of its Hispanic employees, according to the suit, which was first reported by Harlem World Magazine.

The church later rehired several white and Black workers, but none of the Hispanic employees have received offers to return, the suit alleges.

After the layoffs, Spanish-speaking parishioners at the church demanded that the workers be rehired, and circulated a petition to "Save Our Staff at St. Joseph of the Holy Family."

In response, the church's pastor, Father Joseph Kinda, told parishioners: "with one call, the Hispanic people will be gone from St. Joseph Church," according to the complaint, adding that multiple parishioners witnessed the statement.

The three also allege that starting in 2016, they were forced to get down on their knees to clean four flights of stairs each day — strenuous work that no other employees were asked to do.

The Archdiocese of New York did not immediately return a request for comment.

All three plaintiffs also allege that the church failed to provide them with weekly wage statements throughout their years of employment there. Since their firings, the church has not given them a promised severance package of a week's salary for each year of employment, they allege.

The lawsuit asks the church to pay each fired employee up to $10,000 for their missing wage statements and paystubs, plus more payments for unpaid minimum wage, overtime work, and other damages.

The church, at 401 West 125th St., was founded before the Civil War and is the oldest church in Harlem. It was designated a New York City Landmark in 2016.