By Joseph Hong
The U.S. Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against Atlas Towing Services of San Francisco Jan. 31, alleging the company “created a hostile and offensive working environment” for African Americans and Asian Americans and discriminated against them due to their race, sex and national origin.
The lawsuit developed from charges filed by former Atlas tow truck driver Glenn Morishita, a Japanese American, and by former Atlas dispatcher Cathy Peace, an African American woman.
According to an EEOC investigation, Morishita, Peace, and possibly other employees were subjected to epithets and racial slurs against Asian Americans and African Americans by their male supervisors, whose surnames indicate that they may be European American or Latino. There were no allegations that slurs were said against Latinos or European Americans.
According to the EEOC, Atlas’ male supervisors subjected both Peace and Morishita to sexual harassment, including sexually-derogatory comments, solicitation of sexual favors, and broadcasting pornographic telephone sex chat lines over the company’s loudspeakers.
The EEOC lawsuit also alleges Morishita was assigned to the more difficult tow assignments and was paid less than other drivers due to his race and national origin.
“Given the kind of comment that was bantered around, I suspect that other employees were also harassed,” said Raymond T. Cheung, EEOC trial attorney for the case. “Mr. Morishita was one, if not the only, Asian American employee there, but there were other African American employees and definitely anti-African American comments were made and sexual harassment was rampant.”
Cheung did not want to repeat the words said to his clients, but he did say, “they were the usual slurs against African Americans and Asian Americans.”
Cheung said that once the case gets more press attention, other former Atlas employees who were harassed at the company may file their case at the EEOC. At that time, the EEOC could amend the lawsuit and include these additional individuals.
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the EEOC is seeking back pay, compensatory and punitive damages for Morishita and Peace. The EEOC is also seeking injunctive relief to prevent future harassment at the company.
The owner of Atlas Tow, Raphael Yebra, did not return requests for an interview. Current employees of the company, who requested anonymity, said they did not know of the lawsuit.
“We have filed a lawsuit, and it is in the process of serving them so they might or might not have been served yet,” said Cheung.
Cheung said this case is especially noteworthy because an Asian American is filing charges, and disproportionately small numbers of Asian Americans file discrimination charges.
“It is a priority for this district’s office to do more outreach to the Asian American and Pacific Islander American community,” said Linda Lee, program analyst of the EEOC. “We want to make them better aware of their rights because our feeling is that EEOC has not done a good enough job, and we would like to do better by letting people know that we are a resource available to them.”
She added that in the past few years the EEOC has been better in hiring people who are bilingual, and currently has people who speak Cantonese, Mandarin and Tagalog in the districts that serve San Francisco and Hawaii.
Said Cheung: “I’m sure this stuff happens to Asian Americans, but if they don’t come forward and file a charge of discrimination, we can’t bring this kind of lawsuit.” |
