The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued an Oregon-based construction company this week for allegedly allowing Mexican employees to harass their American coworkers and firing an American worker after he complained of the treatment.
The EEOC stated in a press release that in the summer of 2023, Mexican workers at a New Mexico location of Advanced Technology Group, Inc., reportedly directed anti-American slurs toward at least two coworkers, took one of the American worker’s tools without permission, ignored his directives, and mocked him because he could not fluently speak Spanish.
The American worker notified his supervisor, but nothing was done to stop his coworkers’ actions, according to the release. After the worker complained to a different supervisor, his direct supervisor fired him, a move that the EEOC argues was in retaliation for complaining “above [the direct supervisor’s] head.”
The EEOC claims that the alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination on the basis of national origin. The suit follows an attempt by the EEOC to reach a pre-litigation settlement with the company, according to the release.
Mary Jo O’Neill, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Phoenix District Office, said that employers have “a legal duty to prevent and stop all harassment based on national origin, including harassment of American workers.” She added that employers are also bound to investigate complaints of such harassment and take steps to halt it.
EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas called discrimination against American workers “unconscionable,” stating in the release that the EEOC protects “all workers from anti-American bias.”
Lucas continued, “Nothing justifies illegal national origin discrimination, and we will vigorously enforce federal laws to restore dignity to the American worker.”