Lawsuit says 70% spoke only Spanish but company offered zero Spanish materials
A longtime manager at Live Nation's Gorge Amphitheater says she was fired for speaking Spanish to workers who had no English-language materials.
Alicia Sanchez filed her lawsuit in federal court in Washington state last week, alleging the entertainment giant discriminated against her based on age, race, gender and national origin—then retaliated when she reported sexual harassment.
The case offers a window into what can go wrong when companies fail to staff HR properly at remote locations. According to Sanchez's October 29 filing, Live Nation operated the sprawling concert venue with no on-site human resources manager despite employing up to 350 people during peak season.
That left Sanchez, who worked her way up to Operations Manager over 15 years, handling HR duties on top of her regular responsibilities hiring and firing workers.
The numbers tell part of the story. At least 70 percent of Gorge Amphitheater employees spoke and read only Spanish, Sanchez says. Yet the company provided no Spanish-language employee documents, notices or communications—not even basic information about worker rights. The online employee portal was English only.
So Sanchez did what seemed practical: she spoke Spanish with Spanish-speaking employees to help them with employment-related issues.
That became one of the reasons Live Nation gave for firing her in May 2024, she says. The company also cited her for creating...
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