A Black former Chick-fil-A employee in Idaho is suing on claims that he endured racist abuse from his co-workers, including being called an “ape” and threatened to be put in a cage.
In December 2022, Thomas Wade started working as a cook at a Chick-fil-A in Idaho Falls. Wade alleges that he faced repeated racial discrimination despite notifying his managers of the alleged abuse in roughly 25 to 30 reports. Per a copy of the complaint, obtained by The Independent, lawsuit, Wade says, one of his colleagues commented, “Of course he works at Chick-fil-A; he’s Black, so he loves chicken.”
In another disturbing incident, Wade alleges that he attempted to intervene when he saw two co-workers “antagonizing a third employee.” He alleges that one of the workers was the supervisor’s son.
“In response to his attempts to intervene and diffuse the situation, [the son] told [Wade], ‘Shut up ape, before I put you in a cage,’” the complaint alleged. After reporting the alleged racist remark to his supervisor, Wade said the verbal abuse from the supervisors continued, with him calling Wade “monkey-looking” and making it known that his “parents own this store.”
But that’s not all. Wade claims he found a variation of the N-word written on the kitchen freezer and his supervisor’s daughters teasing how he “looked like a monkey and acted like a monkey.” On another occasion, Wade claims he saw a supervisor’s son using a towel to whip a co-worker. The son allegedly told Wade that “he would know about getting whipped since he is Black.”
After reporting the behavior several times, Wade was fired on October 16, 2023. Per the lawsuit, it was “because [he] refused to tolerate and continued to report racist behavior and comments by his coworkers.” Now, he’s suing. Wade’s lawsuit, filed in March, seeks to hold the franchisee accountable for discrimination, hostile work environment, retaliation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The franchise’s owner, Lauren Mosteller, Inc. of Woodstock, Georgia, denied “each and every” allegation in court earlier this month, calling the claims “groundless,” “isolated and sporadic,” and “insufficient to establish a hostile work environment.”
A Chick-fil-A spokesperson responded to Wade’s lawsuit, telling The Independent in a Tuesday statement, “This matter involves a franchisee, not Chick-fil-A, Inc. Franchisees are independent operators responsible for all employment decisions in their restaurants. Chick-fil-A, Inc. is not involved in or aware of their employment matters.”