A major U.S. steel supplier has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a federal civil claim by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which accused the company of “egregious” racial discrimination against Black and Hispanic workers at its main plant in Eloy, Ariz.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona in September 2022, accused Schuff Steel Co. of racial harassment and retaliation after employees said they were forced to work with a manager who repeatedly ridiculed Hispanic workers for not speaking good English and who raised his fist and declared “white power!” in front of Black employees.

Employees also claimed the plant manager, identified in court papers obtained by Atlanta Black Star as Travis Bell, regularly used racial slurs to intimidate them, including the N-word toward Black workers and derogatory terms like “wetback” and “spic” to describe Hispanics, according to the legal action.

Bell also berated Latino employees for speaking Spanish on the job, the EEOC claimed in the lawsuit.

The company allegedly retaliated against those who complained about the explosive encounters, as some employees were fired while others were forced to work the graveyard shift after blowing the whistle on Bell. 

The toxic situation forced some employees to resign.

Kyle Barnett and “other aggrieved individuals” were named plaintiffs in the suit against Schuff Steel, which fabricates massive steel construction beams for major buildings and infrastructure across the country.

The industrial steel giant remains a key player in providing structural engineering to construct the framework of large structures and touts an impressive portfolio of completed projects, including several luxury hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, several major pro sports stadiums, and Apple’s distinctive ring-shaped headquarters in Cupertino, California.

The company also provided 20,000 tons of steel to build the 73-story Wilshire Grand building in Los Angeles, which is California’s tallest skyscraper.

Behind the scenes, the company struggled to address escalating racial friction between employees and management appropriately.

Under the legal settlement reached on Dec. 20, the company is required to implement companywide policies that include measures to prevent further harassment and retaliation on the job.

The settlement is designed to play out over three years, with the half-million dollar payout going directly to affected employees. The company will hire an external expert to review and update its Equal Employment Opportunity policies.

Employees, managers and human resources staff will be required to participate in anti-discrimination training at the Eloy facility and the Phoenix headquarters.

Additionally, Shuff Steel will post the policies in English and Spanish, while an anonymous hotline will be set up to report discrimination.

By initially allowing the harassment to continue, Schuff violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits harass­ment based on race or national origin, as well as retaliation against those who report such incidents. 

The EEOC filed the lawsuit after the company initially refused to negotiate a conciliatory agreement with the government over the harassment claims.

“Employees — no matter what industry they work in, their racial background, or their national origin — have the right to work in an environment free of harassment and discrimination and without the threat of being fired or retaliated against for complaining about the harassment,” said EEOC Phoenix District Office Regional Attorney Mary Jo O’Neill. “No person should ever have to work in such a racist and hostile work environment in order to make a living to support their families. And it is particularly troublesome that this behavior was done by a manager in this case.”

The acting director of the EEOC’s Phoenix District Office, Nancy Sienko, said the settlement demonstrated “that the EEOC will continue to work tirelessly to root out discrimination wherever it is found, in any industry.”