CHARLESTON — A mediation date has been chosen for a case against Office & Commercial Cleaning-WV.
Mediation is scheduled for May 10 at Flaherty Sensabaugh Bonasso in Charleston. Robby J. Aliff will conduct the mediation, according to a mediation notice filed Feb. 24 in Kanawha Circuit Court.
Earlier last month, the court and the parties — Trenton Clark and Joanna Clark and OCC — conferred and agreed to select Aliff as the mediator, court documents stated.
The Clarks, who are residents of Gallipolis, Ohio, filed a lawsuit against OCC alleging that they were both employed by OCC and were treated differently because they were an interracial couple.
Trenton Clark began working for the defendant on July 30, 2019, and Joanna Clark began working for the defendant on March 16, 2020. The couple claims they only have one vehicle, but the defendant would regularly schedule them to work different shifts, while it would assign white married couples to work the same shifts.
The Clarks were wrongfully terminated on July 12, 2020, because they were an interracial married couple, according to the suit.
"By wrongfully terminating Plaintiffs...due to their interracial married couple status, Defendant...not only violated West Virginia and Federal law, but it also violated its own Equal Employment Opportunity and Guarantee of Fair Treatment Policies," the complaint states.
The defendant's discharge of the plaintiffs violated the West Virginia Human Rights Act and was discriminatory, according to the suit.
The Clarks claim the defendant's conduct was malicious because they did not treat white couples with the same discrimination and caused them to sustain lost wages and benefits, emotional distress, aggravation, annoyance and inconvenience.
The Clarks are seeing compensatory judgment with pre- and post-judgment interest. They are represented by Scott H. Kaminski of Ray Winton & Kelley in Charleston.
The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Joanna Tabit.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 21-C-812
