PRESS RELEASE: Two Women Sue Flying Food Group Over Alleged Sexual Assaults
Lawsuit alleges the retaliatory termination of one of the two women; a third worker has filed a state civil rights complaint against the company alleging harassment by the same manager
LOS ANGELES — Two women employed at Flying Food Group’s facility serving Los Angeles International Airport filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court today alleging that the then-Executive Chef of its hot kitchen sexually assaulted them.
The complaint alleges that the manager invited the women to go drinking with him at the end of a long shift while they were still at Flying Food’s facility, directed them from the workplace to a vacant, unfurnished house he owned, where he plied them with alcohol for hours – while drinking little himself – and then sexually assaulted each of them in an empty room in the back of the house.
The complaint also alleges that the manager at one point told a coworker that he was going to “f*** them all,” referring to women he supervised in the kitchen.
The complaint further alleges that in the months that followed the assault, the manager subjected both women to escalating and selective discipline at work – and that in late August 2026, after one of the women took steps signaling that she intended to pursue legal action, Flying Food Group terminated her employment.
“Even though it is hard, I am coming forward because what happened to us should never happen to any woman who just wants to do her job. Flying Food Group needs to be held accountable,” said Zayra Lopez, one of the women bringing the lawsuit.
“I am doing this for my daughter. If God forbid something like this ever happened to her, I would want her to feel like she could come forward,” said Estefania Amador, the other plaintiff in the case.
A third worker has also filed a complaint against Flying Food Group with the California Civil Rights Department, alleging that the same manager repeatedly propositioned her at work over a period of months – advances she rebuffed every time. The complaint alleges that she, too, was recently terminated.
“I commend my clients for their courage in coming forward and speaking publicly about their allegations of sexual assault at the hands of their supervisor,” said Lauren Teukolsky, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs. According to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC), 70% of individuals who experience sexual harassment never report it.
Six other women previously came forward with allegations that they experienced sexual harassment at Flying Food Group’s LAX facility – including several who alleged that, after coming forward, they were subjected to discipline, suspension, and threats of termination.
Flying Food Group has prepared food at LAX for airlines including Air France, Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Japan Airlines, ANA, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, and Air New Zealand, among others. The company is only permitted to operate at Los Angeles International Airport under a special license issued by the City of Los Angeles. That license is currently up for renewal, and Los Angeles World Airports is investigating the company’s compliance record following a February request by Mayor Karen Bass.
The filings come amid mounting government scrutiny of the company’s operations at LAX. Over the last several years, five different government agencies — Cal/OSHA, the California Labor Commissioner, the California Highway Patrol, the National Labor Relations Board, and the City of Los Angeles’ Bureau of Contract Administration — have issued citations or complaints against the company for violations of worker protection and public safety laws, including workplace safety violations, wage theft, and unfair labor practices.
Most recently, on May 20, 2026, Cal/OSHA issued six new Citations and Notifications of Penalty to the company, including four classified as “serious,” carrying $74,000 in total proposed penalties. Those citations followed a fire at the company’s Inglewood facility on January 22, 2026, during which, according to a complaint filed with Cal/OSHA, two workers were found inside a cold storage room whose entrance door had been chained shut from the outside. At each of the company’s two facilities serving LAX, Cal/OSHA cited a serious violation for failing to ensure that cold storage rooms could be opened from the inside — the same hazard for which the agency first cited the company in 2023.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are represented by Lauren Teukolsky of Teukolsky Law and Jeremy Blasi of UNITE HERE Local 11.