TFI subsidiaries to pay $460K settlement over harassment of gay mechanics

Two subsidiaries of parent company TFI International Inc. (NYSE: TFII) will pay $460,000 to settle a sexual orientation and retaliation lawsuit, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Monday.

TA Dedicated, formerly Transport America, and Transportation Enterprise Services were sued by the EEOC over the reported treatment of two gay mechanics. The EEOC said Gary Pugh and Kristopher Neville were harassed and terminated because of their sexual orientation; the men were also allegedly retaliated against for complaining about the harassment and hostile work environment.
The consent decree requires the companies to create and maintain a third-party hotline for employees to report sex discrimination or retaliation, which TA Dedicated must “promptly” investigate.

“We are pleased this settlement provides meaningful compensation to the mechanics who suffered harassment because of their sexual orientation and retaliation for speaking up,” said Debra Lawrence, regional attorney of the EEOC’s Philadelphia District Office, in an announcement. “And the reporting hotline, training, tracking, posting, and EEOC monitoring required by the consent decree should help ensure that other LGBTQI+ persons don’t have to endure similar abuse.”

A TFI spokeswoman declined to comment on the case.

Employees, including supervisors, at the TA Dedicated facility in North Jackson, Ohio, began harassing the two mechanics in late 2018, according to a lawsuit filed against the companies on Sept. 15, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The lawsuit details patterns of repeated harassment, including employees hurling slurs at the men, telling them to perform sexual acts and making inappropriate comments about their sexual orientation.

A lead mechanic inappropriately touched Pugh without his consent, and when he complained, the employee said, “I know you like it,” the lawsuit says. That employee later falsely accused Pugh of touching him inappropriately, which HR immediately investigated. Pugh submitted his resignation notice after the false complaint but was fired for “unprofessional conduct,” according to the suit.

The lawsuit says colleagues repeatedly defaced Neville’s uniforms by changing his name to a woman’s name and wrote that he performed sexual acts for money on the back. An employee once gave Neville a DVD of heterosexual pornography and told him to watch it to “turn straight,” the lawsuit says. Employees reportedly stole and threw away Neville’s lunches, keyed his car and filled his shoes with grease.

Shop manager Shenard Gordon repeatedly told Neville not to share his complaints with HR, according to the suit. When Neville and Pugh eventually complained to HR, Gordon allegedly told employees the next person to complain would be fired. Gordon made Neville paint curbs and poles in the rain while other employees watched and called out, “That’s what you get for being a narc,” the lawsuit says.

HR representative Ryan Winegardener called Neville’s complaints “secondary concerns” and said the allegations couldn’t be substantiated, according to the suit. Neville was eventually fired in 2020 while on an approved leave of absence, with the company citing job abandonment. The company refused to return Pugh’s and Neville’s tools until law enforcement intervened, the suit says. 

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