Illegal activities of Southern bosses during the week between Friday, March 13, and Friday, March 20
Every day across the south workers are killed on the job, stolen from, discriminated against, or sexually harassed. Sometimes the employers are caught. Here are some of the stories we found last week.
Florida Killers
The U.S. Department of Labor cited a Florida utility construction contractor for Duke Energy after one worker was electrocuted and two others injured at a Seminole site in August 2025.
Investigators with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined a work crew from Primoris Services Corp. – operating as Primoris T&D Services LLC – was replacing a utility pole when the pole contacted an energized overhead transmission line, fatally electrocuting a lineman and sending two other workers to the hospital.
OSHA cited the employer with three serious violations for failing to ensure employees maintained the required minimum approach distance from exposed energized parts or have the transmission line deenergized, assign a designated observer to monitor approach distances and provide warnings, and ensure the job briefing covered special precautions required when working under energized transmission lines.
OSHA proposed $49,650 in penalties.
The employer has contested the citations before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Penalties and citations may be adjusted throughout the course of the case process.
Virginia Discriminators
Epiq Food Hall Woodbridge, LLC, which owned and operated a food hall in Woodbridge, Virginia, will pay $54,000 and provide other relief to settle a racial harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.
According to the EEOC’s suit, Epiq’s black general manager faced racial harassment from the company’s owner, who frequently made derogatory comments about black customers and employees, calling them “ignorant,” “ghetto,” and “riff-raff.” The owner also told the general manager that he “look[ed] like [he] spoke thug language” and referred to him using the N-word, the EEOC alleged. Tired of the owner’s harassment and without any avenue to file a report, the general manager resigned in January 2023 after six months of employment, the EEOC said.
Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia after first attempting to reach a prelitigation settlement through its conciliation process.
EEOC Washington Field Office Director Mindy E. Weinstein said, “Unfortunately, harassment remains all too common in the restaurant industry. This litigation and its resolution demonstrate the EEOC’s steadfast commitment to enforcing the law and protecting the rights of workers in that sector.”
The three-year consent decree settling the suit provides $54,000 to the former general manager. As represented in the decree, Epiq no longer has any operating businesses or employees. In addition to the monetary relief, the decree states that should Epiq resume business operations, it shall be enjoined from creating or maintaining a hostile work environment on the basis of race; create and distribute an anti-harassment policy, and provide Title VII training to its owners and management.