The cook was allegedly too good to lose — the women who reported him were not
A new lawsuit alleges Panda Express repeatedly transferred a cook accused of sexual harassment — then fired the women who reported him.
The case, filed on March 19 in federal court in Chicago (Contreras v. Panda Express Inc., No. 1:26-cv-03109), raises a scenario that will be uncomfortably familiar to HR leaders: a worker accused of persistent misconduct who was shuffled between locations rather than disciplined — allegedly because he was too valuable to let go.
Esmeralda Contreras worked as a customer service representative at a Panda Express in Cook County, Illinois, from September 2023 until her termination in May 2025. According to the lawsuit, a cook identified as Silverio began harassing her in or around January 2024, making explicit sexual remarks, offering her money for sex and marriage, and telling her he had married a 13-year-old when he was 23.
Contreras says she raised the issue with management four to five times over roughly seven months — flagging the behavior to an assistant manager, a general manager, and a higher-level area operations leader. One manager assured her an investigation would be launched. To Contreras's knowledge, according to the lawsuit, none ever was.
Silverio was eventually moved to another location in or around mid-April 2025, but only after he allegedly pulled another female employee close to him without her consent. The lawsuit states this was reportedly his third transfer linked to sexual harassment complaints. A shift leader allegedly told Contreras he was kept on because he was considered one of the best and fastest cooks.
Then came the terminations. On or about May 14, 2025, Contreras was let go — the stated reason, according to the lawsuit, was giving away a free cup. That same day, another female employee who had also reported Silverio was fired for giving food to her sister. The lawsuit states neither woman had any serious disciplinary history. Silverio, who had drawn multiple sexual harassment complaints, was never disciplined — only transferred.
Contreras is suing under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, alleging sex-based discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. She is seeking back pay, front pay, and compensatory and punitive damages.
Panda Express has not responded to the lawsuit, and no determination has been made on the merits of the claims.
The allegations, however, land squarely in territory HR professionals navigate every day: what happens when the person driving results is also the person driving people out? The lawsuit describes a pattern — complaints met with silence, a high performer shielded from consequences, and the employees who spoke up shown the door — that sits at the heart of nearly every employer liability case courts take seriously.
For HR teams, the sequence laid out in the lawsuit is a textbook illustration of how retaliation exposure builds: not in a single dramatic moment, but through a slow accumulation of inaction — until the organization is the one left answering questions.
