Supervisor ordered to stop hiring Black workers at Florida company, lawsuit says
A father and son management duo ordered a supervisor to stop hiring Black workers “because ‘they are lazy’” at a construction company’s Florida location, according to a federal lawsuit.
The pair used repeated racial slurs when talking about Black people — particularly about one of the company’s few Black employees who was ultimately fired “based on his race” in 2019 after the supervisor attempted to support him, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint filed against the company states.
Now Lone Wolf Resources, LLC, which has six offices in four states, has to pay $50,000 to settle allegations of racial discrimination, including against the Black worker, that took place at the company’s Jacksonville worksite, the EEOC said in a July 6 news release.
McClatchy News contacted attorneys representing the company for comment on July 6 and was awaiting a response.
“It’s despicable that Black employees continue to be subjected to vile racial slurs in the workplace,” Robert Weisberg, the regional attorney for the EEOC’s Miami District, said in a statement.
The company is accused of giving the Black employee, who was a truck operator in charge of transporting rocks, “the least desirable and most labor-intensive task”— manually pumping water out of ponds — when he was not driving, according to the EEOC complaint. Meanwhile, this task was never given to white workers who held a similar position.
When his supervisor noticed the worker was “receiving less favorable treatment than his white counterparts” and tried standing up for him, he was told to leave the issue alone, the complaint states.
On one occasion, the company’s co-owner and manager, the father and son pair accused of making racist comments against the Black worker, told the supervisor to fire the employee, according to the EEOC. However, the supervisor refused.
This employee was denied a yearly performance review, which was routinely given to white workers, and this prevented him from a potential pay raise, the complaint said. The father and son pair is accused of telling the supervisor that “they hoped this would cause (him) to resign.”
After the worker “complained” about not getting his performance evaluation, he was fired, according to the release.
Lone Wolf is accused of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prevents racial discrimination.
The company, which also has worksites in Texas, Georgia and Michigan, must create an anti-discrimination policy and have its workers partake in anti-discrimination training as a result of the lawsuit, the release said. Additionally, workers are to be informed of the lawsuit.
This story was originally published July 6, 2022 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Supervisor ordered to stop hiring Black workers at Florida company, lawsuit says."
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