EEOC Sues Meritus FCU for Unlawful Employee Firing
An African-American branch manager is allegedly terminated for speaking out against a racially offensive training video at a Louisiana CU.
A Louisiana credit union is being sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for unlawfully firing its only African-American branch manager because she opposed – and assisted another black employee in voicing their opposition – a racially offensive video during a training session.
The EEOC said Friday it filed the federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New Orleans.
Connie Fields-Meaux ran a branch for the $207 million Meritus Federal Credit Union in Lafayette for about three years. The credit union recently changed its name from Lafayette Schools’ Federal Credit Union.
During a training session, the credit union used a video depicting a caricature of an African-American fast food worker as an example of “how not to provide customer service.”
According to the lawsuit, Fields-Meaux was so upset by the video that she excused herself from the session. Other black employees told Fields-Meaux that they were also upset by the video.
The EEOC said the former branch manager reported the concerns of one of the African-American employees the next day. However, the day after she reported these concerns, the credit union fired her, allegedly without warning or explanation, according to the lawsuit.
Meritus President/CEO Connie S. Roy did not return CU Times’ call and email request for comment by Friday’s afternoon deadline.
The alleged unlawful job termination violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC said it filed the lawsuit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
The federal agency requested that the court permanently prohibit Meritus from engaging in any future employee retaliation. The EEOC is also seeking a court order for the credit union to pay Fields-Meaux both punitive and compensatory damages as well as back pay.
“Employers must respond to – and certainly not fire – employees who raise concerns about racially offensive materials,” Keith Hill, director for the EEOC’s New Orleans Field Office, said in a prepared statement.
This is the fourth racial controversy that has involved credit union employees in the last two years.