SAN FRANCISCO - A lengthy federal lawsuit against the City and County of San Francisco alleges racial and age discrimination, harassment and a hostile work environment.
The complaint was filed on April 20 by plaintiffs Brenda Barros, Kim C. Lynch, Dellfienia Hardy, Rachell Evans, Darlene Daevu, Jo-Theresa Elias-Jackson, Cheryl Thornton and Donna James in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The plaintiffs, all Black women over the age of 39, are employees of the San Francisco Department of Public Health with 199 combined years of tenure with the defendant.
The women say they were subjected to discrimination and harassment in many forms, including: denial of training and promotions; wrongfully substandard performance reviews; denial of permission to work from home during a pandemic; more job duties and a bigger work load than non-Black employees; denial of "stand-by" pay that other co-workers received; and unjustified discipline.
The complaint says that the defendant has a history of employment discrimination by race and age and that hundreds of employees have come forward in lawsuits for disparate treatment.
The defendant is charged with racial discrimination in disparate treatment, hostile work environment, disparate impact, retaliation, employment discrimination, age discrimination, racial and age harassment, failure to prevent employment discrimination and harassment and retaliation for medical whistleblowing.
The plaintiffs are represented by the Law Offices of Joseph L. Alioto and Angela Alioto. Joseph is a former mayor of San Francisco.