Objects thrown at a woman, racial slurs hurled at chain’s Florida stores, lawsuit says
A federal lawsuit says Advance Auto Parts allowed an employee to throw computer equipment at a female manager, and allowed racist, sexist and homophobic remarks around that manager and a Black employee at another Florida store.
That’s from the lawsuit that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed in West Palm Beach federal court mostly on behalf of a former assistant general manager at Advance Auto Parts’ Stuart and Jupiter locations.
The EEOC said there was “reasonable cause to believe Advance Auto subjected [the woman] to a sexually hostile work environment” in both stores based on sexual orientation and subjected Black employees to “a racially hostile work environment” in both stores from January 2020 to present.
Advance Auto Parts, also known as Discount Auto Parts, didn’t respond to Miami Herald requests for comment on the lawsuit.
READ MORE: A Fort Lauderdale resort will pay $100,000 to a worker fired 4 days after a stillbirth
Hurling computer parts in Stuart?
The plaintiff began at Advance Auto as an assistant manager at 2925 SE Federal Hwy. in Stuart on Jan,. 10, 2020, the lawsuit said. As assistant manager, she was in charge when the general manager wasn’t in the store. Within the first month, the lawsuit said, a salesperson had a violent response to an assignment from the assistant manager.
He “threw computer equipment at [her] head, nearly striking her, and yelled that he would not take orders from a lesbian woman,” the lawsuit said. He then “had to be restrained by his coworkers as he attempted to hurl various objects within his reach at” the woman.
Reporting this to the store’s general manager and the district manager had consequences, but not what the assistant manager expected: The salesman kept working at the Stuart location, the lawsuit said, while she was transferred to the Jupiter store, almost 23 miles farther away from her home.
The woman “understood that Advance Auto would fire her if she did not accept the transfer to the Jupiter, Florida location,” the lawsuit said.
She started at 2025 Center St. on Feb. 28, 2020.
Hurling slurs in Jupiter?
The woman, the lawsuit said, experienced insubordination as well as “slurs, sexually charged demeaning conduct because of her sexual orientation” at the Jupiter store.
“In her first week at the new location, [she] heard [a] salesperson ... say he didn’t know why lesbians were being hired,” the lawsuit said. The salesmen “continued making derogatory comments in [her] presence, such as gays and lesbians should not exist, and she had never been with a man.” The salesman also “called his Black coworkers “N-Words” in the presence of other employees.”
READ MORE: Lawsuit claims Broward company fired a Hispanic man who reported his boss’ racist actions
Complaints to store the general manager district manager resulted in no changes, the lawsuit said, nor any help from Advance Auto’s human resources department.
Another salesmen “frequently used the slur (for male homosexuals) around the store while [she] was present, and told [her] he would not take instructions from a lesbian,” the lawsuit said. Other salesman “poked [her buttocks without her permission.”
One woman, the lawsuit said, told her she didn’t work well with lesbians while another repeatedly asked about her sexual orientation and marriage status.
“Vile and inappropriate comments about {her] sexual orientation occurred on a near-daily basis at the Jupiter store,” the lawsuit said.
Also, a retail parts supervisor constantly called Black employees “lazy N-words” and “drug-dealing N-words,” the lawsuit said.
“Advance Auto had knowledge of all the above racial and sex-based harassment through its managers, and no corrective actions were taken to prevent the harassment.”
