Boss Watch: 5/30 – 6/6

Jacob Morrison

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the weeks between Friday, May 30, and Friday, June 6

Mississippi Discriminators

Ground Zero Biloxi LLC, which operates a blues club located in Biloxi, Mississippi, violated federal law by subjecting an assistant manager to sexual harassment by one of its co-owners and firing the worker for complaining about the co-owner’s harassment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit.

The EEOC charged that one of the blues club’s co-owners subjected the assistant manager to a campaign of sexual harassment that included repeated unwanted sexual comments and multiple acts of forced sexual touching. The agency alleges that the assistant manager repeatedly complained about the co-owner’s harassment to no avail. Despite these complaints, the agency claims, the club failed to take any effective action against the co-owner to stop him from sexually harassing the assistant manager. The EEOC further asserts that the club retaliated against the assistant manager by firing her shortly after she submitted written complaints to the club’s chief financial officer against the co-owner.

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sexual harassment in employment and retaliation against workers who oppose such sexual harassment. The EEOC filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi after attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The EEOC seeks monetary damages including back pay, compensatory damages, and punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief designed to prevent such unlawful conduct in the future.

Florida Discriminators

CEMEX Construction Materials Florida, LLC, which manufactures and delivers building construction materials, violated federal law when it failed to accommodate an employee’s request to wear a close-fitting skirt over her pants as required by her religion, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, CEMEX refused to allow an employee, who is an Apostolic Christian, a religious accommodation that allowed her to wear a skirt over her work pants. The company denied the accommodation because of its policy against loose-fitting clothing. The employee only wore close-fitting skirts over her work pants and was in compliance with company policy. Ultimately, the company forced the employee to choose between wearing a skirt or losing her job. The employee chose to continue wearing a skirt, which led to her termination.

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination because of an individual’s religion and requires employers to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious observance or practice unless doing so would cause an undue hardship. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

Missouri Discriminators

The Carlstar Group LLC, a Tennessee-based manufacturer of specialty tires and wheels, violated federal law when it discriminated against employees at its facilities in Clinton and Jackson, Tennessee, and Aiken, South Carolina, because the workers lawfully used certain prescription medications to treat their disabilities, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

According to the EEOC’s suit, since at least January 2020, Carlstar has denied opportunities to manufacturing employees when the company learned that those employees were lawfully taking certain prescription medications, including narcotics and opioids, for the treatment of disabilities, even after the employees were medically cleared to perform their job duties. The suit also alleges that Carlstar failed to consider or provide the workers with reasonable accommodations to the company’s drug testing and substance abuse policy that would enable employees to work while lawfully using their prescribed medications.

Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination due to disability. The EEOC’s suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee seeks monetary relief for workers harmed by Carlstar’s alleged unlawful conduct and an order prohibiting future discriminatory conduct against disabled individuals.

Louisiana Discriminators

Oil field service companies Bigfoot Energy Services and Iron Mountain Energy, who operated as a single employer, will pay $697,500 and provide other equitable relief to settle a lawsuit alleging race- and sex-based harassment and retaliation brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the companies’ employees, including management, frequently used the “n-word” and other racially derogatory terms when referring to black employees. Additionally, the companies failed to remedy the conduct of male employees who frequently engaged in sexually demeaning conduct, including sharing demeaning pornographic images of women and making sexually offensive comments. The day after a male truck driver complained about the sexually harassing conduct, he was fired. Other drivers were fired within days of complaining about workplace use of the “n-word,” the EEOC said.

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits race and sex discrimination, including race- and sex-based harassment, and retaliation. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

In addition to the monetary relief paid to affected workers, the three-year consent decree settling the suit requires the companies to implement harassment and retaliation policies; train employees and managers on Title VII, sex- and race-based harassment, and retaliation; and regularly report to the EEOC on their training, policy modifications and complaints of discrimination.

Crushed

So far under the Trump administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is not being as public with its investigations. Even so, workers are still dying on the job – typically 100 workers every week in the US. Even though OSHA is even more hamstrung than before, there is sometimes a small news story whenever someone dies at work because it’s such a terrible thing to happen in a community. 

On the Confined Space Newsletter – set up by Jordan Barab, a former OSHA official – they compile as many news stories on worker deaths as he can find every week. In addition to this newsletter, they regularly host commentary and analysis pieces about labor and workplace safety. You can find it all at jordanbarab.com/confinedspace

This week, they found 17 stories, including 4 from the South. 

A few lowlights:

  • Pompano Beach, FL – A few thousand pounds of glass crushed a man’s neck killing him while at work on Friday afternoon in Pompano Beach, according to fire rescue. Pompano Beach Fire Rescue personnel and Broward County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the “possible decapitation” and found the man dead. There was crime scene tape blocking an entrance at a warehouse’s loading dock at 1350 Park Central Boulevard — home to a window installation service. BSO deputies walked in and out of an entrance at the loading dock 17. They were near several industrial A-frames that are usually used for the vertical storage and transport of glass. Deputies said the man’s death did not involve foul play. 
  • Ocala, FL — A lawn service worker was killed by a falling tree branch during a storm in Ocala, Florida. The victim and a colleague sought shelter from the storm when a portion of a large oak tree fell. A portion of a large tree fell during a storm the afternoon of May 29, killing a lawn service worker. According to Ocala Police Department officials on scene, the victim and another man were in the business parking lot when rain was falling and the storm was blowing through. They decided to seek shelter and went in different directions. Later on May 29, Ocala Police identified the victim as Hunter Parks, who worked for Grandview Landscaping Services.

You can read more here.

Union Busters

Brought to you by LaborLab: The nation’s leading watchdog standing with working families to stop employer coercion and intimidation. Visit www.laborlab.us for more info.

Here are the new filings from this week:

As a reminder, due to a lack of enforcement, some labor relations consultants may disregard the law and fail to report their activities to the U.S. Department of Labor. Therefore, it’s crucial for organizers and workers to report suspected “persuader” activity to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS).

It’s crucial for organizers and workers to report suspected “persuader” activity to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS). You can reach them via email at  OLMS-Public@dol.gov, by calling (202) 693-0123, or by contacting your nearest OLMS District Office.

For assistance, please contact LaborLab at contact@laborlab.us.