Black employees were forced to work in pouring rain, feds say. ‘White workers watched’
At a construction company’s worksites in central Florida, Black employees were demeaned and physically threatened by their white supervisors and co-workers, who would call them racial slurs, according to federal officials.
The Black workers dealt with regular harassment and “humiliating conditions” while working for Asphalt Paving Systems Inc., which also has offices in Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, because of their race, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in an Aug. 28 news release.
On one occasion, a group of Black employees had to work in the pouring rain while white workers sat in the company’s cars until the rain stopped, according to a lawsuit filed by the agency.
The “white workers watched” as they worked, the EEOC said.
The lawsuit details many instances in which the Black employees, who were regularly called racial slurs by white co-workers, were treated differently and with hostility in Florida, where Asphalt Paving Systems’s second-largest office is in Zephyrhills.
According to the lawsuit, white employees were allowed to use restrooms indoors, take lunch breaks at job sites or at restaurants, and rest when they wanted to.
Meanwhile, Black employees “were forced to urinate or defecate outdoors in many instances” and weren’t allowed lunch breaks or time to rest, the lawsuit says. They had to eat while working or driving and were told to “keep busy,” according to the suit.
Now, Asphalt Paving Systems will pay $1.25 million to settle the race discrimination lawsuit brought by the EEOC on behalf of 12 former Black employees and other workers — and the accusations that it allowed racial harassment, the EEOC announced.
In a statement on the company’s behalf, attorney John F. Palladino, who represented the business, told McClatchy News that “we appreciate the efforts of the EEOC team in working with us towards an amicable resolution.”
“Asphalt Paving Systems took the allegations very seriously,” Palladino said, and added that “the allegations were acted on vigorously.”
The company denies the accusations that were made by several individual plaintiffs, according to Palladino.
He said the $1.25 million settlement “was agreed to without a finding or admission of wrongdoing and frankly, was more of an acknowledgment of the financial and manpower commitment that would be required to take the case through trial.”
The individual plaintiffs were represented by attorneys Mary Ann Candelario, Marisela Fernandez-Rosales and Rebeca Martinez Sicari, who told McClatchy News that they “are pleased with the outcome of this case.”
Threatening behavior
According to the EEOC, the hostile work environment Black employees faced was made worse by physically threatening behavior from Asphalt Paving Systems managers, including how they brought guns to jobs, which isn’t allowed under company policies.
When one supervisor, who had a gun at his waist, once found marijuana in a company van, he accused and yelled at a group of Black employees, the lawsuit says.
“Which one of you sons of (expletive) left drugs in the van,” the supervisor asked them, according to the lawsuit.
After two employees “stood up” and objected to the accusation, the supervisor grabbed his gun, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also details how white employees were known to wear hats and shirts with the Confederate flag. One employee, a foreman, would regularly show off his ‘White Pride” tattoo by unbuttoning his shirt, the EEOC said.
According to the EEOC, when the company’s leadership at its Zephyrhills office, known as the “Tampa office,” heard complaints about the racist treatment, it wasn’t addressed.
Asphalt Paving Systems denies that complaints were brought to senior management, Palladino said.
‘Racism in the construction industry’
As part of a three-year consent decree that requires Asphalt Paving Systems to pay the settlement amount, the company must provide training on race discrimination to management and HR employees, the EEOC said.
Palladino told McClatchy News that before the case was resolved, the company established mandatory EEOC training for supervisors “and set up a reporting ‘hotline’ so any issues could be promptly addressed and appropriate action taken.”
The company also has to choose someone from outside of the business to review complaints of racial harassment and provide those complaints to the EEOC, according to the federal commission.
“The settlement reflects a commitment to addressing the issues raised and ensuring that fair and equitable practices are upheld,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys told McClatchy News. “We believe this resolution will contribute to creating a more just and inclusive environment moving forward.”
EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows said in a statement that “this case underscores the urgent need for the EEOC’s ongoing efforts to eliminate racism in the construction industry.”
On Aug. 27, the EEOC announced a $1.6 million settlement was reached in another racial harassment case involving J.A. Croson, a plumbing and HVAC contractor based in Sorrento, Florida, McClatchy News previously reported.
Palladino’s co-counsel in the Asphalt Paving Systems case, attorneys Barry A. Postman, Kelsey Nicole Ortiz and Kristyne E. Kennedy, represented J.A. Croson in that case, court records show.
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