Class Action Alleges FedEx Contractor Failed to Address Reports of Sexual Harassment Against Female Employees

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A proposed class and collective action alleges a FedEx contractor hired and retained as a supervisor a man alleged to be a “known sexual predator” despite reports of sexual harassment and knowledge of the individual’s alleged criminal activity. 

The 22-page lawsuit claims a supervisor for defendant Allied Facility Care, LLC engaged in the “egregious exploitation” of foreign-born, Hispanic women working for the cleaning company. The case alleges Allied Facility Care for years failed to terminate the individual or take other remedial action despite receiving reports from the plaintiffs and other women of sexual harassment, assault, intimidation and other harmful workplace conduct, and “allowed the predator to retain control over Plaintiffs and other foreign-born, Hispanic women” in the course of their jobs. 

The pseudonymous plaintiffs allege FedEx, which is not named as a defendant in the case, “decided to keep Allied and its sexual-predator supervisor because it would ‘cost too much’ to change contractors.” One plaintiff alleges she was raped by the supervisor in the shower room at one of FedEx’s Nashville facilities and retaliated against by the supervisor “the first time she refused to comply with his sexual demands.” The second plaintiff alleges she was repeatedly cornered by the supervisor and sexually assaulted and then retaliated against by being given more physically demanding, less desirable job tasks for refusing to engage with the man. 

Although the women and others reported the incidents and the supervisor’s predatory pattern of behavior, Allied, the lawsuit says, “did not investigate the allegations of sexual assault, rape, and attempted rape from the Named Plaintiffs and other similarly situated women.” 

Alleged in the suit, filed on May 17, are violations of the Tennessee Human Rights Act.  

For the suit’s collective action allegations, the plaintiffs claim they and similarly situated employees were forced to receive their wages in the form of a pre-paid debit card, and that Allied withheld the first week or weeks of pay, as well as the last week or weeks of pay, from the workers in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The plaintiffs claim the pre-paid debit cards did not allow workers to withdraw all of their wages free and clear and without fees, and as such deprived them of proper minimum and overtime compensation.

According to the complaint, FedEx has contracted with Allied Facility Care to perform cleaning services at its facilities since at least 2016. The FedEx facilities mentioned in the lawsuit are two located in Nashville, at which the supervisor has overseen cleaning staff since at least 2016, the case says. 

According to the suit, the supervisor was “accused of assault, offensive or provocative contact” on or around November 30, 2016, and charged with such, and appeared in court in September 2017. Per the lawsuit, FedEx and Allied supervisory- and management-level employees knew or should have known of the criminal allegations against the man and, the suit says, attempted to collect money from employees on the supervisor’s behalf for his legal defense and/or bail. The supervisor continued to oversee cleaning staff at FedEx locations even after the 2016 criminal allegations against him, the case says. 

The plaintiffs allege the supervisor “utilizes the fears and the reticence to report of foreign-born, Hispanic women” such as themselves to “intimidate them into remaining silent about, and to groom them to accept, his sexual assaults and sexual harassment,” and has advertised cleaning jobs with Allied through a Facebook group “designed only for women.” 

The lawsuit alleges the supervisor “harassed and intimidated” the plaintiffs and other similarly situated women by:

• Vetting them to see how badly they needed the job;
• Repeatedly asking them to go out with him;
• Offering to reduce their workloads if they went out with him;
• Threatening to increase their workloads or have them fired if they refused to go out with him;
• Threatening to write up the named plaintiffs if they did not go out with him;
• Writing up the named plaintiffs as punishment for not going out with him; and
• Holding over the plaintiffs’ heads write-ups and possible termination to coerce them into sex. 

The lawsuit alleges the supervisor engaged in a pattern of predatory behavior aimed at Spanish women in search of employment. From the complaint:

“After [the supervisor] groomed Named Plaintiffs, and other similarly situated women, he proceeded to sexually assault them. 

[The supervisor] specifically advertised in Spanish for women to fill the cleaning positions at FedEx on social media. 

[The supervisor] used the Facebook profile of a female to lure women into contacting him for employment.” 

The plaintiffs say their employment was terminated in retaliation for their refusal to submit to the supervisor’s sexual assaults and harassment. 

The lawsuit looks to represent with regard to collective wage and hour claims all current and former employees who worked for Allied Facility Care at any FedEx facility during the three years prior to the lawsuit’s filing. For the class claims, the case looks to represent foreign-born, Hispanic women who worked for Allied Facility Care, LLC at the FedEx Nashville and Mount Juliet facilities since May 17, 2017.

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