Tawana E. Lonnett filed a civil rights complaint against FedEx Ground Package System, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on May 21, 2024.
The plaintiff, Tawana E. Lonnett, alleges that she faced sexual harassment and retaliation during her employment at FedEx's Lake Charles facility. The formal complaint was filed after Lonnett received a Determination and Notice of Rights from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on March 28, 2024. According to the complaint, Lonnett began working as a part-time package handler for FedEx on March 23, 2021.
The incidents that led to the filing began on November 26, 2021, when another package handler, Nikka Clark, allegedly threatened Lonnett and her daughter. Despite reporting this threat to her supervisor Bradford Pitre and requesting the number for the FedEx hotline, no remedial action was taken. On December 4, 2021, a FedEx driver made sexually inappropriate comments towards Lonnett in front of other employees. When she reported this behavior to Pitre and another supervisor named Michelle LNU, she was advised to ignore it rather than any action being taken.
Lonnett's situation worsened after she reported these incidents to FedEx’s Ethics/Alert Line on December 9, 2021. She claims that instead of addressing her complaints about harassment and threats seriously, Pitre placed her on suspension with pay on December 10, 2021. Subsequently, she was terminated from her position on December 16, 2021 under the pretext of her involvement in the November incident.
The lawsuit claims that FedEx violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by creating a hostile work environment through sexual discrimination and failing to take appropriate action against harassment based on sex. Additionally, it accuses FedEx of retaliating against Lonnett for reporting these issues by terminating her employment shortly after she made formal complaints.
Lonnett is seeking various forms of relief from the court including back pay, front pay, compensatory damages for emotional distress and mental anguish as well as punitive damages due to what she describes as willful and malicious conduct by FedEx management. She also requests reasonable attorney’s fees and costs associated with bringing this lawsuit forward.
Representing Tawana E. Lonnett are attorneys James E. Sudduth III and Kourtney L. Kech from Sudduth & Associates LLC based in Lake Charles. The case has been assigned Case ID: No.2:24-cv-00682-JDC-TPL with Judge James D Cain Jr presiding over it.