Page:Cordúa Restaurants, Inc. v. NLRB (19-60630) (2021) Opinion.pdf/3

 In June 2015, Cordúa transferred Ramirez to Churrascos Sugar Land, though he continued to work shifts at Artista. Ramirez’s Churrascos Sugar Land coworkers similarly asked Ramirez about the lawsuit and shared their experiences with paycheck discrepancies. By the end of June 2015, sixteen of Ramirez’s coworkers had joined the collective action lawsuit, including five at Artista and one at Churrascos Sugar Land. At a company-wide meeting in early July 2015, Cordúa informed its general managers of the collective action lawsuit. Ramirez’s general managers at Artista and Churrascos Sugar Land, Damian Ambroa and Rigo Romero, respectively, were in attendance. After the meeting, both Ambroa and Romero separately asked for a list of employees who had joined the lawsuit at their respective restaurants. Ambroa learned from other Artista employees that Ramirez was involved in the lawsuit shortly thereafter.
 * B. Cordúa’s investigation and termination of Ramirez

In mid-July 2015, Naomi Reichman, the assistant manager at Artista, called Ramirez to ask about the lawsuit. Reichman’s husband, Eran, had recently been fired by Cordúa, and Reichman inquired whether she or her husband might qualify to join the lawsuit. Ramirez offered to send Reichman his lawyer’s contact information. According to his testimony before the administrative law judge (“ALJ”), Ramirez also asked Reichman if she could review his payroll records to determine if his hours were correct. Reichman and Ramirez later exchanged text messages, during which Reichman discussed her plans to review Ramirez’s payroll records.

Later in July, Reichman left her personal cellphone unattended in Artista’s office during a shift. Ambroa, the general manager, noticed text message notifications on the cellphone’s lock screen and used Reichman’s password to access her cellphone. According to his testimony, Ambroa had previously received Reichman’s permission to use her cellphone because his