A White Haven man is suing his former employer, alleging it retaliated against him and ultimately terminated him in response to his opposition to alleged unlawful race discrimination within the workplace.
Todd Eagleton filed a lawsuit Aug. 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania against Advance Stores Inc., doing business as Advance Auto Parts in Honesdale, alleging violations of the Civil Rights Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.
According to the complaint, Eagleton was working as district manager at the time he was terminated in May 2013. He maintained an impeccable job performance throughout the duration of his 25 years of employment with the defendants--earning many promotions, awards and monetary bonuses, the suit says.
The suit states the defendant began a campaign of retaliation against Eagleton starting in April 2013 after he complained of discriminatory hiring process. The plaintiff alleges the regional human resources manager exhibited racial discrimination in April 2013 when he didn't hire an Hispanic and African-American individual for a managerial position even though the prospective employee was well-qualified.
Moreover, the suit says Advance Auto Parts has not had an African-American manager in any of its 140 retail locations in Eagleton's region since 2012 and, even then, there was only one African-American manager who has since been terminated.
The lawsuit says the defendant's retaliatory actions included accusing Eagleton of authorizing salary increases for employees without following proper procedures and unjustifiably increasing the targeted sales goal of Eagleton's district to an amount drastically higher than any other district in the region.
The lawsuit states the defendant terminated Eagleton in May 2013 due to the feeling he had lost faith in the company, but the plaintiff alleges this was a pretextual reason and he was actually terminated in retaliation for opposing discrimination.
Eagleton seeks lost wages and benefits, front pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees and costs of suit, and other relief deemed appropriate by the court. He is represented by attorney Sidney L. Gold of Sidney L. Gold & Associates in Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania case number 3:15-cv-01664-RPC.