Peachstate Health Management, LLC, doing business as AEON Global Health, a Georgia-certified reference clinical laboratory in Gainesville, Ga., violated federal law by subjecting an African American female client services employee to a race- and sex-based hostile work environment and firing her for complaining about it, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it recently filed. According to the EEOC’s suit, a supervisor subjected one of its black female client services employees to daily verbal harassment based on her race and sex. The harassment victim reported the abuse to the company on a weekly basis for more than two months, the EEOC said. The employee’s reports of harassment culminated in a meeting with upper-level executives where the employee’s reports of sex- and race-based harassment were raised. During this meeting, Aeon Global Health subjected the employee to additional sex-based verbal harassment and fired her, the EEOC said. Such conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial and sexual harassment in the workplace and prohibits employers from firing, demoting, harassing or otherwise retaliating against employees because of complaints of discrimination or harassment. The EEOC is seeking back pay, compensatory, and punitive damages for the employee, as well as injunctive relief to prevent future discrimination.
