{"id":15371,"date":"2026-08-12T11:35:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=15371"},"modified":"2026-08-12T11:35:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:35:25","slug":"former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church.html","title":{"rendered":"Former In-N-Out Employee Sues Burger Chain, Claims She Was Fired After Seeking Sundays Off For Church"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Left: Eric Broder Van Dyke \/ Shutterstock.com | Right: Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A former In-N-Out Burger employee is accusing the popular fast-food chain of religious discrimination, alleging she was treated unfairly and ultimately fired after requesting a work schedule that allowed her to attend church.<\/p>\n

According to a lawsuit obtained by TMZ, Arianna Rodriguez worked as a cook at an In-N-Out restaurant in Long Beach, California, for nearly five years without disciplinary issues. During that time, she says she maintained a schedule that consistently allowed her to attend Sunday church services.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez claims the situation changed after a new manager took over in October. According to the lawsuit, her Sunday availability quickly became a point of conflict, and she received her first workplace write-up after years of employment.<\/p>\n

She alleges that in December, she raised concerns with upper management, explaining that her church attendance and religious commitments were not being respected. Rodriguez says those concerns were dismissed and that the workplace environment continued to deteriorate.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also centers on a food-related incident that occurred on June 24. Rodriguez claims she handled the situation in accordance with practices she had previously observed at the restaurant. While the specific details of the incident have not been made public, she alleges she was reported to human resources, suspended, and placed under investigation.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez contends that other employees who engaged in similar conduct received only warnings rather than suspension or termination. She says the difference in discipline reflects unequal treatment.<\/p>\n

After again contacting human resources to complain about what she believed was religious discrimination, Rodriguez says she was terminated on July 3 for an alleged policy violation.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, unpaid wages, reinstatement to her former position, and other relief. It alleges religious discrimination, wrongful termination, and related employment violations.<\/p>\n

The claims have not been proven in court, and In-N-Out has not publicly responded to the allegations. The lawsuit comes as the California-based burger chain continues to maintain a reputation for openly expressing Christian values, including printing Bible verse references on its cups, wrappers, and packaging\u2014a practice the company has followed for decades.<\/p>\n

If the case moves forward, it could test whether Rodriguez’s allegations of religious discrimination and unequal treatment are supported under employment law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former In-N-Out Burger employee is accusing the popular fast-food chain of religious discrimination, alleging she was treated unfairly and ultimately fired after requesting a work schedule that allowed her to attend church. According to a lawsuit obtained by TMZ, Arianna Rodriguez worked as a cook at an In-N-Out restaurant in Long Beach, California, for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":15374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer In-N-Out Employee Sues Burger Chain, Claims She Was Fired After Seeking Sundays Off For Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former In-N-Out employee sues the burger chain, alleging she was fired after seeking a work schedule that allowed Sunday church attendance.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former In-N-Out Employee Sues Burger Chain, Claims She Was Fired After Seeking Sundays Off For Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former In-N-Out employee sues the burger chain, alleging she was fired after seeking a work schedule that allowed Sunday church attendance.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-12T15:35:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/08\/In-N-Out_credit-Left-Eric-Broder-Van-Dyke-Shutterstock-Right-Shutterstock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beliefnet Contributors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Former In-N-Out Employee Sues Burger Chain, Claims She Was Fired After Seeking Sundays Off For Church","description":"Former In-N-Out employee sues the burger chain, alleging she was fired after seeking a work schedule that allowed Sunday church attendance.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Former In-N-Out Employee Sues Burger Chain, Claims She Was Fired After Seeking Sundays Off For Church","og_description":"Former In-N-Out employee sues the burger chain, alleging she was fired after seeking a work schedule that allowed Sunday church attendance.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2026-08-12T15:35:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/08\/In-N-Out_credit-Left-Eric-Broder-Van-Dyke-Shutterstock-Right-Shutterstock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Beliefnet Contributors","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church.html","name":"Former In-N-Out Employee Sues Burger Chain, Claims She Was Fired After Seeking Sundays Off For Church","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/08\/In-N-Out_credit-Left-Eric-Broder-Van-Dyke-Shutterstock-Right-Shutterstock.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-12T15:35:25+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-12T15:35:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79"},"description":"Former In-N-Out employee sues the burger chain, alleging she was fired after seeking a work schedule that allowed Sunday church attendance.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/08\/In-N-Out_credit-Left-Eric-Broder-Van-Dyke-Shutterstock-Right-Shutterstock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/08\/In-N-Out_credit-Left-Eric-Broder-Van-Dyke-Shutterstock-Right-Shutterstock.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Left: Eric Broder Van Dyke \/ Shutterstock.com | Right: Shutterstock.com"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/former-in-n-out-employee-sues-burger-chain-claims-she-was-fired-after-seeking-sundays-off-for-church.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Former In-N-Out Employee Sues Burger Chain, Claims She Was Fired After Seeking Sundays Off For Church"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/","name":"Christ News Today","description":"Christian News From Around the Globe","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79","name":"Beliefnet Staff","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/author\/skirk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15377,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15371\/revisions\/15377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}