Boss used racial slurs, disparaged customers in front of Black worker in SC, feds say
A sales representative at a South Carolina loan agency bore witness to her branch manager’s blatant racism against Black customers but never received a response when she complained to the company, according to a new federal lawsuit.
The same employee — who is Black — was later fired after taking unpaid leave for surgery, the government said.
Now the company and its subsidiary are facing a federal lawsuit alleging they violated anti-discrimination laws by subjecting the worker to a racially hostile work environment and firing her based on a disability. The suit was filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency tasked with safeguarding and enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the workplace.
“Employers cannot tolerate a racially hostile work environment, even if the racial insults are directed at a customer rather than another employee,” Melinda C. Dugas, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District, said in a news release.
The lawsuit, filed Monday, March 28, in the District of South Carolina, names Georgia-based Community Loans of America Inc. and its subsidiary, Carolina Title Loans, Inc., as defendants.
Representatives from both companies did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on March 29, and information regarding their attorneys was not available.
Shaneka Jenkins was hired by Carolina Title Loans as a title manager in training/sales representative in August 2019, according to the complaint. She started at the company’s Spartanburg location but was later transferred to Greenville, where she worked in close proximity with the branch manager.
Jenkins’ job duties included helping customers apply for loans, evaluating vehicles for collateral, taking payments and arranging for repossessions, the government said.
For the first two months she worked at the Greenville branch, the EEOC said, where Jenkins listened to the manager use “racially derogatory language and insults when talking about African American customers.”
Those comments included the use of racial slurs and saying that she hated working with Black people, who she thought “never pay their bills” and “tell lies,” according to the lawsuit. Once when the manager hung up the phone after a conversation with a Black customer, she is accused of saying something to the affect of “This f------ (racial slur) is getting on my nerves.”
Jenkins was offended by her boss’s comments and tried to report the incidents first to an area manager and later to a different branch manager, the EEOC said. She also called the employee hotline but reportedly never got a response.
“The Branch Manager’s racially hostile comments created significant emotional distress and caused Ms. Jenkins to feel anxious, upset, physically ill, and required her to seek medical treatment,” the EEOC said in the complaint.
At the end of September 2019, Jenkins asked to take unpaid medical leave for surgery. According to the lawsuit, she was in a car accident in 2015 that fractured her foot and needed several corrective surgeries. An area manager discussed some possible accommodations they could make when she came back to work and approved the request.
But a few weeks later when Jenkins asked to return with the help of crutches or a wheelchair, the loan company refused, the EEOC said.
Carolina Title Loans reportedly barred Jenkins from coming back “until she could return without physical restrictions,” the lawsuit states. The government said she was ultimately fired for “job abandonment” before she could return.
Jenkins later filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC, which determined in February 2021 that she had a case. The agency tried to resolve the matter outside of court but filed suit after those efforts failed.
The EEOC has accused Community Loans of America and Carolina Title Loans of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act. It’s seeking a permanent injunction barring the companies from further alleged discriminatory practices as well as back pay, past and future financial losses and damages for Jenkins.
Neither company has responded to the lawsuit yet, court documents show.
This story was originally published March 29, 2022 at 6:35 PM with the headline "Boss used racial slurs, disparaged customers in front of Black worker in SC, feds say."
