Man who was allegedly ‘called racial, homophobic slurs and had swastika drawn on desk’ sues employer
The case has been ongoing since 2014 (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A man is suing his former employer and colleague for allegedly using “racist” and “homophobic” slurs against him.
Zachery Brinker, from Houston, claims that he was called a faggot and a “n***** lover” by his old colleague, Garret Sharp, at Kilgore Industries.
The lawsuit states that Brinker has children who are black.
The abuse he received in the workplace became worse when he told his co-workers this fact.
Two weeks following this, a swastika was allegedly drawn on his desk.
Brinker says that he was given the abuse from Sharp and his old boss for a number of months up until he was reportedly fired in May 2017.
Sharp “joked about (Brinker) being gay in private, directly to (Brinker) and also before (Brinker’s) co-workers,” the suit claims.
Brinker said this became worse after a black man was hired by the company.
Related: This lesbian couple is suing the government because it won’t give their child citizenship
Unsavoury jokes were allegedly made about the two men being sexually involved.
The suit states: “Mr. Sharp said numerous times that (Brinker) would like to be black, that (Brinker) only dated/f*cked black women, and that he knew (Brinker) ‘liked chocolate’.”
Brinker says that he was offered a pay rise in March 2017 to “settle the sexual and racial harassment complaints”.
However, he did not take the rise because he wanted to keep the integrity of his complaints about the alleged abuse.
The claimant alleged that the human resources director told him that she had only heard about the discrimination complaints a day earlier.
The suit states: “(Brinker was retaliated against with wrongful termination for reporting the harassment he was subjected to by foreman Sharp and other co-workers.
“(Kilgore Industries) neither investigated nor disciplined foreman Sharp, whose harassing behaviour continued to escalate and became severe and pervasive to the point of creating a hostile work environment,” the suit states.
Brinker is seeking over $100,000 in damages.
