Home Depot Sued for Job Harassment and Discrimination
Our law firm filed a lawsuit last week on behalf of our client, and against Home Depot. The federal court lawsuit alleges job harassment because of our client’s race, national origin and age.
Our client, age 62, was a happy employee of Home Depot for over 20 years. The staff at Home Depot enjoyed working with our client and all was well until our client transferred to the Little York store in Houston. There, his store manager was Thomas Willtrout, and that is when the problems began.
In his lawsuit, our client alleges that Thomas Willtrout, his store manager, told him that he was “old and slow,” and that he “did not know anything about technology.” In addition, Willtrout, who is white, allegedly made fun of our client’s Indian-Carribean accent in front of customers and co-workers. Further, it is alleged that Willtrout would pretend that he could not understand our client whenever he spoke to Willtrout.
Our client also states that when he asked Willtrout to stop harassing him and making fun of him because of his age and national origin, that Willtrout said, “I’m the f***ing manager, I can do what I want.”
Following that exchange, our client states that he complained about the discrimination to Mervin Alphonse (District Manager) and Pamela Holland in Human Resources. They apparently initiated an investigation, but Willtrout remained as our client’s manager.
In May of 2016, our client states that Willtrout confronted him about the complaint to HR and told our client that he is “unhappy about that.” The following month, Willtrout gave our client a written warning, and in August of 2016, Willtrout fired our client, allegedly in retaliation for his complaint to HR and the District Manager. His 20+ years at Home Depot came to a very sad end.
The lawsuit is currently pending in U.S. District Court in Galveston, with the first hearing set for April 12 of next year. This Houston employment lawyer is representing the worker in his case against Home Depot.
For further information, I may be contacted at bruce.coane@gmail.com or at 713.850.0066 or 305.538.6800.
Helen Surovek 2:36 pm on December 27, 2017 Permalink |
Simply another “ME TOO!” of another category. Outrageous! I LOVE impersonating accents of people I meet in good hearted fun when we can all share a laugh. NOT impersonation for ridicule. A MAJOR difference. As a Manager, one, in my humble opinion, is not a co-worker, per se. Another dimension of co-working authority. Again, in my humble opinion, this is disgraceful! My grandparents had a thick Eastern European accent. As children we were always teaching them the proper pronunciations of certain misspoken words as well as helping them with their cursive and spelling. Simply translated: learning. NO making fun! NOT ALLOWED!
TO have and use the authority to FIRE someone for exercising their right to report this ‘discriminating’ behaviour to HR is OUTRAGEOUS! Does it not go against the very right of an employee to have a reporting process? If not, WHY HAVE AN HR DEPT at all? Is HR there for compliance only. No true reason, just to exist?
The person that should be in the line of the fire is the manager that exercised his right to fire. This is an unjust treatment of an otherwise stellar employee of 20 years within the same company. To be told ” old and slow” as well as citing ‘knowing nothing about technology” is also more than inappropriate. Have a learning session with the “old” as they do with the ‘young.’ I’m betting there are systems in place that MUST be learned?
And…disgraceful to spout “I am the f…… manager. I can do what I want.”
First of all, the language is unacceptable from ANYONE, especially Management! The culture of Management being able to do ‘what they want’ is NOW scrutinized, as it should be.
Please have Home Depot accountable. Shameful they are so large HD cannot truly manage and govern their management. Shameful!
Coane and Associates,PLLC 5:23 pm on December 29, 2017 Permalink |
Thank you for sharing your insights and thoughts.