Racial Discrimination: Employee Stands Up for His Rights

Sacramento, CA Not only was Armen the victim of racial discrimination, he was also wrongfully terminated, actions that are in violation of the California labor law.

Armen, a journeyman electrician who immigrated to the US from Armenia, was hired by a communications company that builds cell phone towers. The company’s policy included a 90-day trial period, and during that time, they promised Armen a foreman position once the training period was up.

Near the end of his training period, Armen was assigned to a crew and foreman that had an out-of-town job. Right away, the foreman- let’s call him Joe - and Armen clashed.

“Joe asked me if I had asked our mutual supervisor for a raise and I told him that I had,” says Armen. “Joe said, ‘I will give you a raise if you quit smoking. When you smoke on the job you are spending my time’. I told Joe that it wasn’t his position to give me a raise. He may have been kidding with me, but when we got to the job site, he called me a slave, in front of the other guys. I felt that I was being racially discriminated against. Some of the guys didn’t like the way I was being treated, but at the same time, they didn’t stand up for me. I think they were afraid of retaliation.”

(The reason Armen asked for a raise was because the same day he was hired, the company also hired an electrician without journeyman papers. Armen later found out that he was getting paid $18 per hour, which was $2 per hour more than Armen. When Armen asked his manager why he was paid less - as a journeyman he had a lot more responsibility - they said it was a mistake and they were going to fix it.)

“When we finished the job we had to drive to the hotel - the job was out of town so we were staying overnight,” Armen explains. “In the car I told Joe that he doesn’t have the right to call me a slave. I told him that I would report him to the office. He suddenly stopped the car, screamed and swore and kicked me out of the car, in the middle of nowhere. He said I have no right to tell him what to say or what to do. Then he said, ‘You came to the US, to my country as an immigrant and you have to do exactly what I tell you to do because you are working for me!’

“He drove away and I was left standing by the side of the road. The hotel was more than a 30-minute drive away and I had no idea where I was. Thankfully, the other crew (they were behind us in the second car) picked me up and we drove to the hotel together.

“Next day when we went back to the office I told my supervisor that I didn’t appreciate Joe’s racial slurs against me. My supervisor said he was going to investigate what happened. ‘Give me a week or two and I will do something about this guy - I will either reprimand him or fire him,’ he told me. So I waited, for three months.”

Armen was separated from that crew so he wouldn’t have to work with Joe anymore. Then he was made foreman.

“I had a crew of two guys that I supervised,” Armen explains. “I worked very well and had no problems with the company. My super and manager always had good things to say about me and a lot of guys said I was a hard worker - I liked this job. But some people don’t like me being the foreman because of my accent and my nationality. Joe wrote something detrimental about me and I believe it was because he doesn’t like me being in the same position as him. He worked 10 years for the company and I was his peer right away, soon after the training period.

“Then I got demoted from electrician to a helper and I didn’t get the raise I was promised. And here is another wrong thing: they constantly took two hours from my timesheet. For example, if I worked 14 hours in one day, they paid me for 12 hours. They did this every single day, and not only with me. I complained because I know this is illegal and they told me it is a company policy. Then I got fired, because I tried to stand up for my rights.”

Armen believes he was wrongfully terminated and if not for Joe’s racial slurs, he would still be employed. Racial discrimination is not tolerated under California labor laws and Armen is pursuing a discrimination lawsuit against Joe and the company.