Employee of the month files $20M lawsuit against Magic Mountain, alleging racial discrimination

A Six Flags Magic Mountain food server who was named “Employee of the Month” is suing the theme park for $25 million, alleging he was discriminated against and wrongfully fired after working at Big Belly Burger.Charles Winters, who is black, claims in a Los Angeles lawsuit that he faced racial discrimination while working at the park from 2022 to 2025.Among the allegations, Winters says black employees were told the company Christmas party had been canceled.Winters learned about the party from an employee bulletin board and asked a supervisor, who allegedly told him it was canceled.

Two black coworkers said they were told the same thing, but Winters later discovered the party had gone ahead as planned, according to the lawsuit.Winters says during “down time,” when food service team members were required to clean the black workers were treated differently than white employees at Magic Mountain which is named as a defendant in the suit.“Often, Defendant’s African-American employees would be on their hands and knees cleaning the floor, refrigerators, counters and various other areas, while Defendant’s white employees were given the less strenuous job of waiting at the cash register,” according to the documents.  “Additionally, Plaintiff, and other African-American employees, were subject to increased scrutiny based on their appearance.Plaintiff’s supervisors would constantly check that Plaintiff’s uniform shirt was tucked in, much more so than they did for other employees,” the lawsuit added. Winters claimed he and other African-American employees were pushed to upsell souvenirs and disciplined if they failed to upsell, “which non African-American employees were not subject to.”Winters, who was named “employee of the month” in August 2023, says he went to a high level manager to report the discrimination and request a transfer.

“This high level manager informed Plaintiff that he could not be transferred and that he would just have...