Robotics Manager Sues Walmart for Gender Discrimination and Harassment
The Walmart employee alleges that her supervisor told her to “not be so emotional,” called her while drunk and sent text messages saying “I love you."
August 13, 2019 at 07:45 PM
3 minute read
A former senior robotics manager at Walmart Inc. is suing the retailer claiming she was passed over for promotions based on her gender—pointing in particular to a department head who told her to “not be so emotional,” called her while drunk, and sent text messages saying “I love you.”
The complaint, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeks to sue the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant for gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Kantor & Kantor in Northridge, California, and Carey & Associates of Southport, Connecticut, represent the employee, Alicia Lomas.
Lomas’ attorneys did not immediately respond to a request to comment at the time of publication.
Lomas claims that her male supervisor had treated her unfairly compared to her male colleagues and engaged in inappropriate behavior while she worked as senior manager of controls and robotics in Walmart’s Chino, California, fulfillment center. When she was hired in April 2018, Walmart told Lomas she would supervise the controls department and work closely with the engineering team at the company’s e-commerce brand Jet, according to the complaint. She was the only female employee in the department at the time.
After her supervisor joined her team in July 2018, he began calling her the “senior controls engineer,” since she did not manage any direct reports and relegated her to maintenance support, the complaint alleges.
Lomas asserts that the supervisor relied on her for robotics and technological expertise, and Walmart vendors would mention his apparent lack of automation expertise. However, Lomas claims her supervisor ”also relied on Ms. Lomas in a way that was inappropriately personal,” Lomas’ lawyers write in the complaint. “He routinely told her that he loved her, and would even send her texts saying, ‘I love you.’”
The lawsuit alleges that the supervisor recruited several of his male friends, who had at least 10 fewer years of experience compared to Lomas, to fill positions in the department.
After several instances where the supervisor handed promotions and opportunities to work on the new technology or controls management to male counterparts, Lomas told him that she was interested in joining Walmart’s design and projects team, according to the complaint. Afterward, Lomas claims the supervisor retaliated against her by ignoring her in meetings about projects she led, singling her out or giving away her responsibilities to other team members.
Lomas claims she reported the supervisor to Walmart’s human resources department, disclosing his alleged pattern of inappropriate behavior that included drunk calling and texting her, taking employees to strip clubs, and making gay jokes in front of vendors. A week after, the HR department began an investigation into Lomas’ complaints, which resulted in the supervisor’s termination a week later.
Following the supervisor’s departure, Lomas texted a coworker saying “Well you shouldn’t fuck with Alicia :),” which her lawyers claim is a reference to her courage to complain about discrimination and harassment. The text made its way around her team, and Lomas was terminated due to a vague “conflict of interest,” according to the complaint. Lomas’ lawyers claim she “was summarily terminated based only upon one male coworker’s reporting of a single innocuous text she had sent him.”
LeMia Jenkins, director of national media relations for Walmart, said the company does not “tolerate discrimination of any kind.”
“Ms. Lomas was terminated for legitimate reasons,” Jenkins said. “We are reviewing the complaint and will respond as appropriate with the Court.”
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllNLRB Bans 'Captive Audience' Meetings, Yanking Away Platform Employers Used to Combat Unionizing
FTC Receiver Eyes Fraudulent Messages Ecommerce Company's Clients
Judge Splits Couple's Potential Recoupment of Punitive Damages Against eBay's Harassment Campaign
4 minute readGoogle expert at antitrust trial says ad-dollar competition is underestimated
4 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Judicial Ethics Opinion 24-61
- 2Decision of the Day: School District's Probe Was a 'Sham'; Title IX Administrator Showed Sex-Based Bias
- 3US Magistrate Judge Embry Kidd Confirmed to 11th Circuit
- 4Shaq Signs $11 Million Settlement to Resolve Astrals Investor Claims
- 5McCormick Consolidates Two Tesla Chancery Cases
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250