EEOC Tag Archives — Sexual Harassment Lawyer Blawg

Witness Files Statement Under Oath About Slurs at Patriot Contractors

May 14, 2025 | by Employment Law Firm

A witness made a filing under oath that supports two workers’ claims in their charges against Patriot Contractors. The two workers’ Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charges say that a company Superintendent used frequent slurs—including the N word and “f*ggot”—and threatened violence. Then, when a coworker—who Patriot knew was and still is battling cancer—stood up for the victim, the Superintendent retaliated, forcing him, the cancer patient, to perform work that was painful due to his disclosed cancer treatment.

The witness says in the new filing that the Superintendent repeatedly called one of the workers a “pineapple f*ggot;” used slurs including the N word, “wetback,” “sp*c,” and “queer;” and rejected job applicants while saying things like “oh, they’re in the Navy, they’re probably a f*ggot,” and “nope, he’s black, he’ll be lazy.”

This witness’s filing says she called Patriot’s Human Resources manager about monthly and complained to her about the Superintendent’s harassment—in fact, in some of these calls, the witness told HR that someone had quit because the Superintendent called them a racial slur. HR would just respond “well, that’s just [the Superintendent,] I’ll talk to him,” or “oh, I thought he calmed down, I’ll talk to him”—and the Superintendent kept behaving the same way. The filing says that Patriot’s Reno site would go through as many as three to five employees per week in peak hiring season–new hires would come in for one or two days, or might not even finish their first day, and then they would not come back, because of how this Superintendent behaved.

Encompass Health, a Major National Chain of Rehabilitation Hospitals, Faces Serious Charges of Sexual Harassment

August 17, 2023 | by Employment Law Firm

Encompass Health runs a chain of rehabilitation hospitals across the United States. It is enjoying record revenues. However, Charges of Discrimination and Retaliation filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by nine current or former women employees of the Encompass Colorado Springs hospital threaten its success.

For revenue growth, Encompass depends on expansion and keeping its facilities at maximum capacity, which in turn depends on growing its referrals. Rehabilitation hospitals receive most of their referrals from discharge planners—social workers and case managers—at acute care hospitals or other health care facilities. Case Management and Social Work is a woman-dominated field. Encompass competes with other rehabilitation hospitals for referrals from these women. Encompass’s women employees rated it fifth among six major competitors according to a Comparably study done in 2022.

A Virginia man alleges that his coworker called him “boy” numerous times and compared him to a monkey–and then handed him a bag of fried chicken as an “apology.”

May 12, 2022 | by Employment Law Firm

Marcus Staples worked for Advanced Technology Recycling, an electronics de-manufacturing company headquartered in Pontiac, Illinois, with seven locations across the country. In Staples’ Complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, he alleges that whenever the company’s project manager was on site, he referred to Staples and Staples’ African-American coworkers as “boy”—while referring to white co-coworkers by their given names. One of Staples’ coworkers has stated under oath that he “was so upset” by the manager’s “offensive racism, I frequently complained to [our supervisor] about it myself. During 2019, I complained to [her] about [the] behavior on approximately a weekly basis, either on my own or with co-workers. She said she would take care of it, but nothing changed to remedy the situation.”

The conduct escalated: Staples alleges that the manager derisively compared him to a monkey, and when Staples was offended and upset, the next day the manager handed him a baggie of fried chicken in front of multiple coworkers as a mocking “apology.”

Staples alleges in his Complaint, and multiple co-workers confirm under oath, that when the manager returned to the worksite after these incidents, he resumed calling Staples and his African-American coworkers “boy” — the same as before. Staples alleges that the company went on to retaliate against him for filing an EEOC charge, baselessly disciplining him. When he refused to work through the EEOC to try to settle the charge [which indicated that Staples planned to sue], Staples alleges ATR fired him.