WINFIELD – A Kanawha County man says he was fired after he complained about racism, homophobia and bigotry while working at Toyota’s Putnam County facility.
Christopher Martin filed his complaint in Putnam Circuit Court against Leadec Corp., Mike Burger and Richard Reese. Burger was Operations Manager for Leadec at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Buffalo, and Reese the Site Manager. Toyota is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Leadec provides technical services for the automotive and manufacturing industries, according to its website.. The company employs around 20,000 people worldwide, deploying permanent teams in the facilities and plants of its customers but also has its own operations at more than 200 locations.
According to his complaint, Martin began working for Leadec in September 2016 until he was fired January 20, 2020. He says his brother is Black and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and he says the defendants knew that. The complaint does not mention Martin’s race or sexual orientation.
“Not only was the racism and bigotry perpetuated by defendants Burger and Reese, but it was also condoned within the workplace as multiple other Leadec employees participated in the racist and bigoted conduct within the workplace,” the complaints states, adding that Martin says he was not the first person affected by the racist and bigoted comments and actions of the defendants.
He cited one example of an openly gay co-worker named Greg. Martin says defendants Burger and Reese frequently would make homophobic comments about him and, after he left the job, they frequently would make comments such as, “don’t pull a Greg” or tell employees not to be around them “if they were going to begin acting like Greg.”
He says they also told a Black coworker named James “not to go eating a bunch of watermelon and fried chicken” over the weekend.
Martin says the final straw came in January 2020 when defendants were discussing that the Toyota plant would be closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He said Burger and Reese complained and vented that Toyota was making them take off work for “Black Day.”
That’s when Martin says he submitted a complaint to Leadec’s human resources department. He says he documented many incidents, named Burger and Reese directly, called the behavior “intolerable” and demanded an investigation.
Instead of an investigation, Martin says Leadec told Burger and Reese about the complaint.
Two days later, Martin received an email from Leadec HR Director Eli Bryant thanking him for the email and asking to discuss it more in the near future.
An hour later, Martin says Reese tried to call him. Later in the day, Reese called him again to inform him the defendants “were taking his team in a different direction and his services were no longer needed.”
“Leadec, within two hours of receiving plaintiff’s complaint, informed defendants Reese and/or Burger about the complaint, and defendants retaliated against plaintiff and terminated his employment because he opposed the racist, homophobic and bigoted practices of defendants, which are both disgraceful and unlawful and because plaintiff lodged a complaint with human resources concerning the same,” the complaint states.
He accuses the defendants of retaliatory discharge, hostile work environment, wrongful and retaliatory discharge, violating the West Virginia Wage Payment and Collection Act and a tort of outrage.
Martin says he has suffered emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation, annoyance, inconvenience and loss of dignity as well as economic damages. He seeks compensatory damages for front pay and back pay. He also seeks punitive damages, attorney fees, court costs, pre- and post-judgment interests and other relief.
He is being represented by Philip A. Reale II of the Law Ofice of Philip A. Reale in Charleston.
Putnam Circuit Court case number 21-C-147
