EEOC sues Rio Rancho contractor over harassment, firing claim

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says a Rio Rancho construction worker was harassed with anti-American slurs, reported the abuse three times and was fired the day after he escalated the complaint to another supervisor.

The agency filed EEOC v. Advanced Technology Group, Inc. on May 12 in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, case No. 1:26-cv-01501-KK-SCY. ATG is identified by the EEOC as a project-based construction services company based in Hillsboro, Oregon, with jobsites nationwide. The complaint says the alleged harassment began around June 2023 at ATG’s Rio Rancho location, where at least two American workers were subjected to anti-American slurs by Mexican coworkers. The agency also says one worker’s tools were taken without permission and his work was impeded because he could not speak Spanish fluently.

The worker, Robert Gutierrez, was born in the United States, is Hispanic American and identified his national origin as American, according to the complaint. The EEOC says Gutierrez complained to his direct supervisor on or about June 1, June 30 and July 17, 2023, but nothing was done. After he raised the matter with a different supervisor on July 17, the agency says he was fired the next day for going “above” his direct supervisor’s head.

For Sandoval County’s construction and industrial corridors, the case is about more than one jobsite. Rio Rancho and the surrounding area continue to court large employers and major projects, and those projects often depend on layers of contractors, supervisors and subcontractors. Intel opened Fab 9 in Rio Rancho in January 2024 as part of a $3.5 billion New Mexico investment, and Intel says Fab 9 and Fab 11x together form its first co-located high-volume advanced packaging site in New Mexico. In that environment, complaints about bias, language barriers and retaliation can quickly become liability issues for firms trying to keep crews moving.

The EEOC said it first tried to resolve the matter through its administrative conciliation process before suing. In announcing the case, Chair Andrea R. Lucas said discrimination against American workers is “unconscionable.” Mary Jo O’Neill, the agency’s Phoenix District Office regional attorney, said employers have a legal duty to prevent and stop harassment based on national origin and to investigate complaints promptly. The EEOC’s national-origin guidance says harassment can include offensive remarks about accent, ethnicity or national origin, and it can become unlawful when it is severe or frequent enough to create a hostile environment. On Rio Rancho-area job sites, that standard now sits squarely inside the conversation about hiring, supervision and how quickly contractors respond when workers say the line has been crossed.