Plaintiff Tishay Wright worked for Southland Construction in Pleasanton, California, a San Francisco Bay Area suburb.
After joining the firm in June 2015 as a project administrator, Wright said in her lawsuit that she repeatedly heard the Haydens make derogatory comments about minorities.
She alleges hearing them say things such as, “We’ll just make the Mexicans do it,” and making fun of Hispanic accents in front of Latino employees, according to her complaint.
In November, Wright said Kenneth Hayden summoned her and another female employee into his office and told them, “Y’all are my b******,” before discussing a task. After complaining about his language, she said tensions rose between her and the Haydens.
During the office Christmas party, Wright said Kenneth Hayden handed her a gift. She unwrapped it and found a rhinestone-studded purse of the Confederate flag and several photos of the Haydens posing with Confederate symbols.
“It made me sick to my stomach,” Wright told CNN affiliate KGO-TV in San Francisco. “And I felt like dirt, like he considered me to be less of a human.”
If you gift an African-American employee a rhinestone-studded Confederate flag purse, you might be the worst employer of 2017.