Oak Harbor Big 5 Sporting Goods Sued by EEOC for Racial Harassment

Oak Harbor, WA – Big 5 Sporting Goods, one of the Western United States’ Largest Sports retailers,  violated Federal Law when it allowed ongoing racial harassment, including death threats, and retaliatory discipline against a Black Manager Trainee at its Oak Harbor, Washington store, according to a lawsuit filed on July 20th, 2017 by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Employee Robert Sanders was the only African-American employee at the Big 5 location on Whidbey Island.  According to the  EEOC investigation,  the store manager and various assistant managers allegedly called Mr. Sanders “spook,” “boy,” “King Kong,” and they told him he had the “face of a janitor.” 

The investigation  found that even though Mr. Sanders repeatedly reported this conduct to upper management, the company failed to act and Mr. Sanders instead faced escalated harassment as well as retaliation in the form of increased workloads, denial of breaks and unwarranted discipline according to the EEOC press release.

The stress of the continued  harassment forced Mr. Sanders to take several leaves of absences. One assistant manager told Mr. Sanders, “We will hang you, we will seriously lynch you if you call in again this week.”   Another assistant manager asked Mr. Sanders if he was “ready to commit suicide,” offering “assistance” when he was ready to end his life.

Mr. Sanders stated “I came prepared to work hard and put in my dues to become a manager, but I was met with comments about my race.”   One of the comments was “You’re the perfect definition of “spook” because your skin is so dark, but your teeth are so white.”  One manager trainee even taunted  Mr. Sanders that he would “end up in a river, dead.”   Mr. Sanders stated “Whidbey Island is a small place, and I didn’t want to leave my house. I felt like Big 5 took away my ability to not just succeed at work, but to simply live my life with dignity and without fear.”

The press memo states, Racial harassment and retaliation violate Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964. After first attempting to reach a pre litigation settlement through its conciliation process, the EEOC filed its lawsuit (EEOC v. Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp., Civil Number 2:17-CV-01098.) in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The EEOC seeks monetary damages for Mr. Sanders, as well as injunctive relief to remedy and prevent harassment and retaliation in the workplace.

EEOC Trial Attorney Carmen Flores said, “Mr. Sanders simply wanted to come to work and earn a living. Instead, his promising career opportunity was poisoned by hate and threats from his managers and coworkers. I hope that our lawsuit in this case will send a message to all employers that they need to take swift action when alerted to workplace harassment.”

Nancy Sienko, field director for the Seattle Office of the EEOC’s San Francisco District added “The delay by Big 5 to take action to investigate and stop the racial harassment and retaliation is inexcusable. The slurs and threats Mr. Sanders faced have a terrible history and should never be tolerated. it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that all employees can work in a safe environment free from racial hostility so they can succeed to their highest potential.”

Big 5 Sporting Goods operated 433 stores with 9,000 full-time employees as of January 1st, 2017. They are headquartered in El Segundo, California.

 

Read the Original Press Release here.