EEOC sues Saipan Grand Hotel

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has sued the Saipan Grand Hotel for allegedly retaliating against one of its employee who had filed charges of employment discrimination with the federal agency.

The lawsuit was filed last week in the federal court on Saipan after Alisanre Angeles, a Filipino contract worker hired as gardener by the hotel, was told that his employment contract would no longer be renewed, according to a statement from EEOC.

It stemmed from Mr. Angeles’s original complaint to the EEOC in connection with the hotel’s policy of publicly posting the health certificates of its nonresident employees, which the agency said is a violation of federal laws.

Under the American Disabilities Act, the EEOC case charged the hotel with retaliation against Mr. Angeles by refusing to renew his annual contract after he filed his complaint.

In 1998, the EEOC obtained a preliminary injunction ordering the hotel to continue Mr. Angeles’ employment. As nonresident, the gardener would have faced deportation had the injunction order not been granted, interfering with a proper investigation of his complaint, EEOC said.

But Mr. Angeles faced additional retaliatory acts at work, which served as the basis for three more EEOC charges. Although the hotel agreed to settle these charges and renew his contract in August 1999, less than two months later it refused to rehire him, claiming a local resident would replace him.

EEOC said Mr. Angeles had worked nine years with the hotel and during this period, no local resident worker had ever replaced a guest worker for the gardener position.

“The laws enforced by the EEOC strictly prohibit retaliation against any person who has filed a charge or assisted in any manner,” said Regional Attorney William R. Tamayo in the statement.

“The Commission will not tolerate this kind of interference with our mandate to effectively investigate charges of discrimination. We therefore will take strong and immediate action against retaliation,” he added.

Susan L. McDuffie, district director for the San Francisco District Office, said the agency’s investigation revealed repeated retaliation against Mr. Angeles since complaining about the employment discrimination.

“If employers can get away with intimidating or punishing employees for filing EEOC charges, no one would ever feel safe in complaining about discrimination on the job,” she said in the same statement. “We will vigorously pursue these cases to preserve workers’ rights.”

The lawsuit will seek compensation for any past and future monetary losses resulting from the retaliation and for the emotional pain and humiliation Mr. Angeles has suffered. The EEOC will also ask for punitive damages and an injunction to prevent the Saipan Grand Hotel from retaliating against its employees in the future.