Mooresville hotel settles EEOC suit

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that T.M.F. Mooresville, LLC, which operates as Hampton Inn & Suites Mooresville/Lake Norman, has agreed to pay $60,000 and provide other nonmonetary relief to resolve a lawsuit filed by the agency.

The complaint

According to the EEOC’s complaint, from at least April 2017 through October 2018, a black housekeeper employed by T.M.F. Mooresville created a racially hostile work environment for a group of white housekeeping employees. The black housekeeper referred to the white employees in racially derogatory terms, routinely chastised them, and interfered with their ability to perform their jobs.

The EEOC alleged that the housekeeper routinely used the terms “white bitch,” “white ho [whore],” and “white trash” when speaking to the white housekeepers or when speaking to others about them while in their presence. The housekeeper also used the term “white tree people” to refer to white employees who took breaks under a tree. The housekeeper didn’t refer to employees of other races who took their breaks in the same location as “tree people.”

She chastised other black employees for socializing with white employees, saying things like, “I can’t believe you are sitting with the white tree people.” The claim also alleged that the housekeeper interfered with the work of the white employees in various ways.