A vice president for 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 a vice president for Anthony Roofing “routinely” called a Black employee his “slave,” among other offensive racial remarks.
The same executive regularly made sexually explicit comments about female employees, such as by asking one woman if she was “pregnant or just fat,” the EEOC alleged.
The vice president in question, who had hiring and firing power at the company, also suggested that “women did not have a place in the office,” the complaint alleged.
But harassment at the company was not limited to the vice president, according to the EEOC. Supervisory and nonsupervisory employees alike “also routinely engaged in racial harassment of Black employees,” the lawsuit alleged, including by calling Black employees “boy.”
Employees reported the racial and sexual harassment to the company’s human resources department, which failed to take action, the complaint alleged.
Company representatives allegedly responded to harassment complaints dismissively, including by telling one worker that “nothing could be done,” and by warning them not to make complaints to outside agencies, according to the complaint. One worker who reported the alleged racial harassment ended up resigning 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 resigned and punitive damages for those subjected to harassment.
Anthony Roofing and Tecta did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday. A status hearing in the case is set in February.