CHARLESTON – A former employee of Frontier Communications says he was a victim of racial and ethnic discrimination.
Moises DeLeon filed his complaint in federal court against Frontier of West Virginia. DeLeon now lives in California, but he lived in Maryland when he worked for Frontier in the Eastern Panhandle. He was a local manager in Frontier’s Potomac and Martinsburg areas of operation.
According to the complaint, DeLeon arrived at work at the Martinsburg office on July 27, 2020, to find a sign on his office door. The sign said, “Keep This Office Whites Only,” “Wetback” and “Go Home Moises” with crosshairs or a bullseye over his name. Even though a Frontier employee had begun painting over the words, DeLeon called the police to report the incident.
Later, DeLeon says, he learned Frontier claimed DeLeon had written the words on the door himself even though he says Frontier’s records show he was not in the area of the Martinsburg office when the incident could have occurred.
DeLeon says had complained to Frontier management previously about employees he managed who were racist against him and were creating a hostile work environment by acting aggressively toward him and refusing to adhere to reasonable work demands. He says Frontier failed to take proper action.
In October 2019, for example, he says a white supremacy sticker of a white clenched fist appeared on the refrigerator in the Martinsburg office. And in June 2020, DeLeon told John Tipton, Frontier’s director of West Virginia operations, that three grievances filed against him were the result of discrimination and harassment DeLeon endured from white team members. He also noted that white managers were treated differently than he was.
He says Tipton dismissed DeLeon’s claims, saying he “had no proof.”
Following the July 27, 2020, incident, DeLeon says he was “completely emotionally traumatized, disabled and fearful for physical safety.” He says he was forced to take time off from work and later extended the time off by using the Family and Medical Leave Act. During the time off, DeLeon says he sought treatment for his emotional trauma.
When he exhausted his FMLA unpaid leave time, DeLeon says he was forced to resign in March 2021 because “he felt that he could not safely return to work for Frontier in its Martinsburg location.”
DeLeon filed a claim with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which gave him a Notice of Right to Sue on May 9, 2022.
In its answer, Frontier denies the allegations and seeks to have the case dismissed. It also says that, after DeLeon requested it, the company offered DeLeon a transfer to his home state of California that he refused.
“The evidence collected during Frontier’s investigation indicated that it was equally (if not more so) likely that the writings on the door were made by plaintiff himself, as it is that another perpetrator placed them there,” Frontier states in its answer.
DeLeon accuses Frontier of violating Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1981 Equal Rights Act via race discrimination and a hostile work environment and of violating the West Virginia Human Rights Act.
He says he has suffered loss of pay and benefits, career damages, personal and professional embarrassment and humiliation, emotional pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life.
DeLeon seeks compensatory damages of front pay and back pay and for Frontier’s conduct, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
DeLeon is being represented by Kirk Auvil of The Employment Law Center in Parkersburg and by John B. Flood, Anthony J. Marcavage and Michael G. Raimondi of Flood Marcavage Law in Rockville, Maryland. Frontier is being represented by Kameron Miller and Richard M. Wallace of Littler Mendelson in Charleston.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 2:22-cv-00332