Waitress Sues Over Firing in Birthday Song Dispute

Cora Miller was fired for a song.

Her second day at a Chi-Chi’s Mexican restaurant turned out to be her last, she said, when 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. None of that seemed to matter to the manager of the Chi-Chi’s restaurant in Clinton, she said.

“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, alleging that the national 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, accusing the company of acting with “malice or reckless indifference” to the federal Civil Rights Act.

“We want back pay from the day she was fired” and punitive damages, said Diane Bradley, an EEOC attorney.

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.”