Roofing company VP called Black worker ‘slave,’ suit alleges
A vice president at an Aurora roofing company harassed black and female employees by subjecting them to racial slurs and explicit comments about their bodies, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged in a lawsuit filed Friday.
The EEOC sued Rosemont-based Tecta America and its Aurora-based subsidiary Anthony Roofing in federal court in Chicago after failing to reach a pre-litigation settlement with the companies.
The lawsuit alleged that an Anthony Roofing vice president “systematically” called a black employee his “slave,” among other offensive racist remarks.
The same executive regularly made sexually explicit comments about female employees, such as asking one woman if she was “pregnant or just fat,” the EEOC alleged.
The vice president in question, who had the power to hire and fire the company, also suggested that “women had no place in the office,” the complaint alleges.
But harassment within the company is not limited to the vice president, according to the EEOC. Supervisory and non-supervisory employees also “regularly engaged in racial harassment of Black employees,” the lawsuit alleges, including referring to Black employees as “boys.”
Employees reported the racial and sexual harassment to the company’s human resources department, which took no action, according to the complaint.
Company representatives allegedly responded to harassment complaints with dismissiveness, including telling one worker that “nothing could be done” and warning him not to file complaints with outside agencies, according to the complaint. A worker who blew the whistle on allegations of racial harassment ended up quitting after the company failed to address it, according to the EEOC.
The lawsuit, which alleges violations of the Civil Rights Act, seeks back pay for the worker who quit and punitive damages for those who were victims of harassment.
Anthony Roofing and Tecta did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday. A status hearing on the case is scheduled for February.
