A waste management company in Florida agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle a federal race and national origin discrimination lawsuit on behalf of 26 Black and Haitian workers who claimed their co-workers regularly harassed and directed racial slurs at them, conduct unchecked by supervisors who often assigned them the most difficult tasks and inferior equipment.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued Waste Pro of Florida in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville in September 2023 after receiving a complaint from Fednol Pierre, a Black Haitian welder who worked at the company’s Jacksonville location.
Pierre reported to the EEOC that another welder, William Watts, began harassing him soon after he transferred to the Jacksonville facility in October 2021, and frequently subjected him to the “N-word” and other derogatory slurs including, “There is no need for you here,” “Go back to Haiti N*gger,” “This is Trump country,” and “go back to Haiti on the banana boat.”
He also alleged that a co-worker Mr. Shuman regularly called him the “N-word.”
Pierre reported the slurs regarding his race and Haitian heritage to multiple supervisors at Waste Pro, but no corrective or disciplinary actions were taken, despite some of the derogatory comments being overheard by other co-workers and managers, the complaint alleged.
During an investigation by the human resources department in March 2022, a regional manager disclosed to Watts that Pierre had made a racial discrimination complaint against him and Shuman, despite Pierre’s request to remain anonymous, the lawsuit said.
Fearing retaliation, Pierre asked to be transferred to a later shift, even though that meant he would lose work hours and pay as a result. Even so, he still had to work with Watts and Shuman for an hour each day.
After that, and just before a scheduled anti-harassment training for maintenance staff, Pierre and another Black employee discovered a stuffed monkey holding an American flag in Pierre’s work area. He reported it to management and demanded the monkey be immediately removed, but no action was taken for several hours, and the monkey remained in a location where all employees could see it, the complaint says.
Following his discrimination complaints, Watts and Shuman retaliated against Pierre, he claims, by refusing to communicate with him about auto repairs, leaving him with the most difficult welding tasks to complete at night, and locking the best welding equipment in their personal lockers so he could not access it.
After two more weeks went by with no corrective measures stemming from the harassment, Pierre resigned on May 12, 2022, telling his manager that he was quitting because he could no longer work with the men who continued to harass and mistreat him and because no action had been taken in response to the monkey incident.
The lawsuit claimed that Waste Pro subjected Pierre and a class of Black and/or Haitian-American employees at its Jacksonville location to a hostile work environment based on their race, color, or national origin.
Managers were aware of and condoned the inflammatory language and ongoing racial harassment of Black and Haitian-American employees, which was committed openly and at times in their presence, the EEOC argued.
Managers purposefully assigned Black and Haitian workers more difficult repair work and provided them with inferior equipment and tools, and delegated Black drivers to less desirable routes and provided them with inferior vehicles, the lawsuit claimed.
Some supervisors of drivers made racial comments to workers about their skin color, such as one manager who allegedly said, “It’s awful dark in here,” referring to the presence of his Black subordinates.
Meanwhile, white employees were often given more leniency in the enforcement of company policies and were generally treated more favorably, the lawsuit claimed.
Waste Pro’s Jacksonville division manager, Tim Williams, allegedly objected to hiring a female dispatcher because she was Black, and told a Black male supervisor he had “Billy Idol lips,” the complaint said.
Besides seeking a jury trial to determine monetary compensation for Pierre and the class of about two dozen aggrieved Black and Haitian-American employees to make them whole after suffering pecuniary losses, pain and suffering, the EEOC asked for a permanent injunction enjoining Waste Pro from participating in discriminatory conduct, permitting a hostile work environment and/or retaliating against employees.
It also sought an order to force the company to institute and carry out policies and practices to provide equal employment opportunities for Black and Haitian-American employees and to eradicate the effects of its past and present unlawful employment practices.
In its answer filed in October 2023, Waste Pro denied most of the allegations of discrimination, retaliation and hostile work environment in the complaint, claiming that it had “exercised reasonable care to prevent and promptly correct any harassing or discriminatory behavior” in its workplace.
The company also claimed that all employment decisions it made were based on legitimate, nondiscriminatory and reasonable factors not related to race or national origin.
Waste Pro noted that it already had an explicit policy against harassment in the workplace, conducted trainings and other remedial measures to prevent harassment, and argued that it had provided employees a reasonable process to complain about alleged harassment.
Waste Pro further asserted that the EEOC did not engage in good faith conciliation efforts prior to Pierre filing his lawsuit, had refused to provide information about the alleged class of harmed individuals, and had presented Waste Pro with a “take it or leave it” offer that demanded damages “that seemed to far exceed any harm suffered by” Pierre or the other Black and Haitian workers.
After another year of litigation, the basic terms of the agreement were hashed out in a settlement hearing in October 2024, and a jointly proposed, amended consent decree agreement was submitted by both parties to the court for review.
In her order issued on June 5, U.S. District Court Judge Wendy W. Berger approved some of the proposed terms and denied others, ruling that the consent decree should last for three years or until any disputes regarding compliance are resolved.
The final consent decree requires Waste Pro to pay $1.4 million in monetary relief to Pierre and the other Black and Haitian-American class members employed at the company from February 2021 to December 2023. The amount of compensation each person receives will be based on the severity and duration of the harassing conduct alleged and the alleged emotional harm they suffered, to be determined by the EEOC.
The company’s officers and managers are barred from subjecting Black or Haitian-American employees to racial epithets, racial slurs, threatening or intimidating behavior, and physical violence, and from denying Black employees the use of facilities, trucks, tools, truck routes and resources on the basis of their race, color or national origin.
The decree requires Waste Pro to conduct exit interviews and to draft a written seniority system for the assignment of trucks and routes on a race-neutral basis, as well as to establish a statewide discrimination complaint tracking system.
Waste Pro must hire a compliance officer approved by the EEOC to oversee and investigate the company’s compliance with Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws; review and revise its existing EEO policies and procedures for handling complaints of discrimination, harassment and retaliation; conduct annual training on anti-harassment policies with all non-supervisory employees in Florida; and provide specialized training on race discrimination to its CEO Sean Jennings, COO Keith Banasiak, and other top management and human resources employees to make sure they are aware of their obligations to prevent workplace discrimination and how to address complaints in a neutral manner.
The decree also requires Waste Pro to submit written reports twice a year to the EEOC certifying that employees completed all trainings; that any complaints of race-based harassment were promptly addressed and investigated within six months; and submit a report from the compliance officer tallying the number of race discrimination complaints, the results of any investigations and any remedial actions taken by the company, and how each step taken aligns with its newly adopted employment policies.
“This case underscores the urgent need for EEOC’s ongoing efforts to eliminate racism in the waste management industry,” said EEOC Miami Regional Attorney Kristen M. Foslid in a statement. “The EEOC will continue to use all its tools — including vigorous enforcement and litigation where necessary — to confront employers who tolerate race discrimination in their workplaces and hold them accountable.”
Tracy Meehan, Waste Pro’s corporate communications director, said in an emailed statement to Wastedive.com that the company has “always been committed to fostering a productive and healthy work environment for its employees that is free of harassment and discrimination” and has already implemented changes to its manager training program and its communications to employees about company anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies.
“This case stems from events alleged to have occurred in 2022, and while Waste Pro did not find evidence of intentional wrongdoing, a settlement was reached to avoid lengthy litigation and refocus on our commitment to our employees and the people we serve,” Meehan said.
