Angela J. Dwyer, representing herself, claims she faced workplace discrimination and retaliation while employed as a Security Operations Manager at General Motors' Martinsburg location. She details incidents from January 19, 2022, involving disciplinary actions against one of the security guards for cursing the plaintiff out. She sent a copy of this report to her supervisor, Harold "Terry" Carufel, as well as his supervisor, Vice President of Operations Robert Sharp which received no response.
Later in the day a representative of human resources, Joyce Kowalevicz, contacted the plaintiff regarding a complaint filed by one of their vendor drivers against her. Mr. Carufel and Ms. Kowalevicz tried to force Ms. Dwyer to write a statement regarding the vendor drivers complaint. The plaintiff believed she was being accused of wrong doing falsely.
She contacted the Allied Universal ethics hotline to report these actions from Mr. Carufel and Ms. Kowalevicz. Meanwhile, the security guard continued to curse out the plaintiff and she wrote a second disciplinary report and again sent it to her superiors with no response. It was thought that the security guard may have been drinking while on the job. The plaintiff believed that this created an unsafe work environment and was being condoned by the silence of her supervisors at Allied Universal.
On June 20th, 2022 Mr. Carufel wrote up the plaintiff for a bad email and on June 22nd, 2022 she was put on paid suspension but was never given a reason for the suspension. These and several other unlisted instances are why the plaintiff believes that Allied Universal discriminated and retaliated against the plaintiff.
Ms. Dwyer initially filed a civil rights lawsuit against Allied Universal in the Circuit Court of Berkeley County, West Virginia, under case ID 3:24-cv-00056-GMG-RWT on March 28, 2024 and later moved to the US District Court - Northern District of West Virginia on May 10th, 2024.
The plaintiff is seeking reinstatement to her former position or a higher one, $74,000 in back pay plus interest since October 6, 2022, $125 million for compensatory damages, and $65 million for punitive damages due to alleged discrimination and retaliation.
