Waste Pro will pay $1.4 million to settle a federal discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency announced this week. 

The suit alleges that Waste Pro failed to intervene when a Black sanitation worker and 25 other employees in Jacksonville, Florida were subjected to what the EEOC described as frequent “horrific racial slurs and epithets” and other severe harassment due to either their race, their background as Haitian Americans, or both.

Some of the employees were also denied use of necessary tools or equipment needed to do their jobs or were singled out to complete harder or less desirable tasks than other workers, the lawsuit alleges.

A judge approved the consent decree on June 5, the last step needed to finalize a consent decree that was first proposed in October 2024. EEOC filed the complaint in September 2023. 

As part of the consent decree, Waste Pro must provide specialized training on race discrimination to supervisors and human resources employees, the decree says. It specifies that Waste Pro CEO Sean Jennings and COO Keith Banasiak must attend the first training session. 

Waste Pro must also appoint an independent compliance officer, who will oversee the investigation of any race discrimination complaints the company receives at any of its locations throughout Florida, the EEOC said. Waste Pro will have to establish a centralized discrimination complaint tracking system and provide the EEOC with biannual reports noting any discriminatory conduct at its locations and describing what corrective measures were taken.

Further, the company will need to create a written seniority system that assigns collection trucks and routes “on a race-neutral basis.” The suit alleged that certain managers made “an already difficult job – picking up Jacksonville residents’ trash and recycling –  intolerable by assigning Black employees to worse routes and trucks while forcing them to endure severe racial harassment,” EEOC said in a statement.

“This case underscores the urgent need for the EEOC’s ongoing efforts to eliminate racism in the waste management industry,” said EEOC Miami Regional Attorney Kristen M. Foslid in a statement. “The EEOC will continue to use all its tools — including vigorous enforcement and litigation where necessary — to confront employers who tolerate race discrimination in their workplaces and hold them accountable.”

Tracy Meehan, Waste Pro’s corporate communications director, said in an emailed statement that the company has “always been committed to fostering a productive and healthy work environment for its employees that is free of harassment and discrimination” and has already implemented changes to its manager training program and its communications to employees about company anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies.

“This case stems from events alleged to have occurred in 2022, and while Waste Pro did not find evidence of intentional wrongdoing, a settlement was reached to avoid lengthy litigation and refocus on our commitment to our employees and the people we serve,” Meehan said.

The EEOC complaint originally centered on an employee who reported harassment at a Waste Pro location in Jacksonville, saying he and another employee were regularly told to “go back to Haiti” and endured other harassment on a regular basis. At one point, the worker said someone left a stuffed monkey on his desk as a reference to a racial epithet, the EEOC said. 

The suit alleges that the employee reported the harassment several times, but supervisors took no corrective action on the complaints until several months later, when HR called a meeting. After that meeting, according to the lawsuit, workers retaliated against that employee by hiding or locking away his equipment and leaving him the most difficult assignments. 

The case grew to include dozens of other workers who the EEOC said were harmed by similar ongoing racial discrimination.

“This case began when one worker bravely spoke out against race discrimination and filed a charge with the EEOC. Because of his actions, the company was forced to undergo significant change,” EEOC trial attorney Austin Case said in a statement. The original employee’s decision to file the charge also helped his other coworkers “receive some measure of justice for the discrimination they endured,” he said.