EEOC sues company over harassment, retaliation against American worker

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says Advanced Technology Group, Inc. let harassment of American workers continue at a Rio Rancho, New Mexico jobsite, then fired one worker the day after he complained above his direct supervisor’s head.

The agency filed suit May 12 in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, saying the Oregon-based construction services company, which has jobsites nationwide, violated federal law by allowing anti-American slurs and retaliation to continue. The case is EEOC v. ATG, Case No. 1:26-cv-01501-KK-SCY.

According to the complaint, around June 2023 at least two ATG employees were subjected to anti-American slurs by Mexican coworkers. The EEOC also says one worker had tools taken without permission, which interfered with his job, and that he was ignored and mocked because he could not speak Spanish fluently. The worker complained immediately to his direct supervisor, then escalated the issue to another supervisor on July 17, 2023. He was fired the next day, July 18, in what the agency says was retaliation for going above the supervisor’s head.

The EEOC says it first tried to resolve the matter through administrative conciliation before filing the lawsuit. In announcing the case, agency leaders said the problem is not just the harassment itself but the delay. Andrea R. Lucas said the EEOC is there to protect workers from anti-American bias. Mary Jo O’Neill, the EEOC’s Phoenix district attorney and regional attorney, said employers must investigate national-origin harassment and take prompt action to stop it. Melinda Caraballo, the Phoenix district director, said retaliation for complaining about national-origin harassment violates federal law.

For Big Lots workers, warehouse teams, and mixed-shift crews, the lesson is immediate. Federal rules require employers to maintain a workplace free of national-origin harassment, and they can be liable if they know about coworker harassment and fail to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. Retaliation for filing a complaint or participating in an investigation is also barred, and harassment by a supervisor can create serious liability when it leads to a firing or other negative job action.

The EEOC’s harassment guidance took effect April 29, 2024, and it applies to workplace harassment in settings that include virtual work environments. In practice, that means workers who document slurs, interference with tools or equipment, and ignored complaints can help preserve a case, while managers who wait, shrug it off, or treat a complaint as disloyalty can turn a fixable problem into a legal one.