ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 16, 1996 TAG: 9610160055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BALTIMORE
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
Cora Miller was fired for a song.
Her second day at a Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurant turned out to be her last when she said she refused to sing one of the most popular tunes in the world to a lunchtime customer - ``Happy Birthday.''
Miller is a Jehovah's Witness, and celebrating birthdays - even the birth of Christ - violates the rules of her religion. She said that none of that seemed to matter to the manager of the Chi-Chi's restaurant in Clinton.
``He said, `I can't use you,''' recalled Miller, 43. ``I told him I could still serve the food. I can even work in the kitchen. I just can't sing the song.
``He said, `No, that's it. You have to leave.'''
Miller is fighting Chi-Chi's in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, claiming that the national restaurant chain violated her rights and broke federal laws designed to protect her religious beliefs.
Miller has the support of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which has taken Chi-Chi's to court, claiming that the company acted with ``malice or reckless indifference'' to the federal Civil Rights Act.
A case conference was scheduled this week with U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg.
``We want back pay from the day she was fired,'' said Diane Bradley, an EEOC attorney who represents Miller. She said the federal government also is seeking punitive damages from the firm.
Chi-Chi's promised to fight the federal suit.
``Chi-Chi's does have a policy in its restaurants of celebrating customer birthdays, and Chi-Chi's also complies with all federal and state employment laws,'' the company said in a statement. ``The company is confident that its actions in Ms. Miller's case will ultimately be found to have been entirely proper.'' Miller said she did not know at the time of her hiring that the company had a policy requiring workers to join in raucous birthday celebrations for its customers.
Jehovah's Witnesses have strict beliefs. They shun birthday parties as pagan rituals, say saluting the flag is image worship and believe blood transfusions are sacrilegious.
Craig Reidemann, the former Chi-Chi's general manager who fired Miller, did not return phone messages.
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