A Black former quality control inspector and tester for an El Segundo urban transit engineering company has settled his lawsuit in which he alleged he was wrongfully fired in 2019 for complaining about racially related incidents that included the placement of a noose by a supervisor.
Wayne Clower’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit against Kinkisharyo International LLC alleged wrongful termination, racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination, harassment and retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Clower’s lawyers filed court papers with Judge Christopher K. Lui on Thursday notifying him of the resolution, but no terms were revealed.
In their court papers, defense attorneys denied Clower’s allegations and stated they were barred in whole or in part by the statue of limitations.
Clower, now 65, was hired as a quality control inspector and tester in January 2019 and was routinely denied training opportunities provided to non-Black workers, the suit alleges. Three months later, he saw a rope fashioned as a “hanging-man” noose hanging from a pole, according to the suit.
“Clower immediately became uncomfortable and afraid and reported this to his supervisor … who took no action in response,” the suit filed in April 2021 stated.
Clower later found out the noose was tied by another supervisor, Alain Cortave, a co-defendant in the suit, so the plaintiff reported what he discovered to the company’s human resources department, the complaint stated. But instead of taking action, the company began to reprimand the plaintiff and issued negative written comments about his work, the suit stated.
Clower complained that he was not receiving equal training to that given to others who were not Black, but nothing was done, the suit further alleged.
Over the course of several months after his first complaint, Clower was repeatedly referred to by other employees, including Cortave, as “the hanging man,” which made him feel uncomfortable because some of his ancestors had been lynched, according to the suit.
Rather than take appropriate action, Shapland, another co-defendant, ignored Clower’s complaints and instead overly scrutinized the plaintiff, the suit alleges.
Clower submitted a detailed complaint to human resources in September 2019 regarding the alleged disparate treatment and he was fired about two weeks later, according to the suit.