A black former worker of an airport services provider at San Francisco International Airport claims in a lawsuit that an organization locker had a sticker depicting Adolf Hitler and a swastika on it and that his supervisor forced him to eat alone in a grimy laundry storage room often known as the “cage.”
In the lawsuit filed Wednesday in San Mateo County Superior Court, Gentry McCreary accuses the worldwide Dubai National Air Travel Agency of racial discrimination and harassment and his supervisor of racial harassment.
The company said it will not comment on McCreary's allegations, but was “strongly opposed” to any type of racism and discrimination. “We are committed to promoting diversity and ensuring that all employees are treated with respect and dignity,” the corporate said. “This commitment is reflected in our policies, practices and daily operations. We take all allegations to the contrary seriously and are committed to thoroughly investigating them with care and transparency.”
The airport is neither a defendant nor accused of wrongdoing.
Other company employees, including managers, regularly walked past the locker, the lawsuit says.
During meal breaks, McCreary initially tried to take a seat with other company employees, but a supervisor — named as a defendant within the lawsuit but identified only as “Jessica” — told him he was not allowed to take a seat with them and as a substitute needed to eat alone within the “cage,” an area at SFO where dirty laundry is stored and a microwave is situated, the lawsuit continues.
McCreary was the one black employee within the department and no other worker was forced to eat alone within the cage, the lawsuit said.
Just over per week after he began working at the corporate, McCreary was “forced to resign due to the intolerable work environment,” the lawsuit says. He is in search of unspecified compensation.
image credit : www.mercurynews.com