Firing an Employee for Complaining About Harassment is Illegal

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently filed a lawsuit against Aqua Resources alleging that the company discriminated against African-American employees by subjecting them to a racially hostile work environment and then firing an employee after he complained about the harassment.  A supervisor, who was Caucasian, made repeated derogatory comments and jokes to African American employees that were racially offensive.  The comments and jokes included comments such as “n*****,” “monkey,” and “boy.”  The EEOC also alleges that a supervisor told a white employee not to “n***** the truck up.”  Aqua Resources did not stop the harassment after receiving a complaint.  Instead, Aqua Resources actually promoted a wrongdoer, placed the wrongdoer as a supervisor over the complaining employee on a project, and then firing the complaining employee.  See EEOC v. Aqua America, Inc., No. 2:17-cv-04346 (E.D. Pa.).