Walgreens
TAMPA, Fla. – A Puerto Rican woman, who was a longtime Walgreens employee, last month filed a lawsuit against her former employer over alleged discrimination by various supervisors.
Plaintiff Yaritza M. Sierra filed her lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division.
In her 31-page complaint, Sierra accuses Walgreens of racial and ethnic discrimination, national origin discrimination, sex discrimination, retaliation, and creating a hostile work environment.
“The discriminatory and retaliatory conduct directed toward Plaintiff was frequent, severe, humiliating, threatening to Plaintiff’s job security, and interfered with Plaintiff’s ability to perform her work,” the filing states.
“Defendant’s conduct was sufficiently severe and pervasive to alter the terms and conditions of Plaintiff’s employment and create a hostile, intimidating, humiliating, and abusive work environment.”
Sierra initially worked for Walgreens in Puerto Rico from 2008 through 2012, according to her complaint. Her primary language is Spanish, and English is her second language.
“As a result, Plaintiff speaks English with an accent and, at times, experiences difficulty communicating in English,” she noted in her filing, but claims Walgreens was aware of her ethnicity and language barriers when she was hired.
Later in 2012, she transferred to a Walgreens store in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she worked from 2012 through 2019.
During this time, she worked with Samuel Harris, a white, non-Hispanic male, who at the time served as the location’s emerging store manager. The emerging store manager is directly managed and supervised by the general store manager, the filing notes.
Sierra claims she made complaints to Walgreens regarding Harris’ alleged discriminatory conduct and treatment, but they were never “adequately” investigated or corrected.
Her employment ended with Walgreens in 2019, but in June 2021 she resumed her employment at a Tampa-area store. She claims she experienced no issues at the store.
She transferred to a different store in October 2023, after being encouraged to do so for advancement opportunities, she contends.
There, Harris was the general store manager; Tony Shilimon was the emerging store manager. Shilimon, according to her complaint, was from Iraq.
Soon after her transfer to the store, Sierra claims she began experiencing discriminatory and hostile treatment based on her Hispanic/Latina race, ethnicity, Puerto Rican national origin, sex, language, accent, and protected activity.
Shilimon made various discriminatory comments directly to Sierra that women should be submissive and that he disliked Hispanic women like her because they “do not listen to men,” her lawsuit alleges.
“Shilimon’s comments were directed toward Plaintiff and/or made in Plaintiff’s presence because of Plaintiff’s Hispanic ethnicity, Puerto Rican national origin, and identity as a woman,” the filing states. “Plaintiff found the comments offensive, humiliating, degrading, and discriminatory.”
Shilimon went as far as instructing Sierra not to speak to him unless she spoke either “100 percent English” or “his language,” according to her lawsuit.
Soon after, Sierra verbally complained about the discrimination and harassment to Harris. Rather than take any action, Sierra claims Harris advised her to “have patience” as Shilimon would allegedly soon be terminated.
“Despite receiving notice of Plaintiff’s complaints, Defendant failed to promptly and effectively stop the discriminatory conduct,” the suit states.
Sierra claims Harris also made discriminatory remarks.
“Specifically, Harris stated in substance that he did not want to hire more Hispanic employees with accents and that he had ‘enough with Yaritza,’” the complaint states.
Sierra claims after she made additional complaints regarding Shilimon and Harris, her employment was altered.
Instead of regularly working full-time hours, her hours were “drastically reduced” to as little as eight hours a work week.
She contends she also was falsely accused of threatening a coworker and then forced to sign a final written warning in May 2024, despite not being supplied evidence of the accusations against her.
“When Plaintiff refused to sign the warning because the allegations were false, Plaintiff was informed that she could be terminated if she failed to sign,” her filing states. “Plaintiff signed the warning under duress and only because Defendant threatened termination if she refused.”
Months later, in September 2024, Sierra’s employment was terminated following claims she again was threatening a coworker. She claims in her lawsuit the accusation was “false, retaliatory, and pretextual.”
Sierra seeks back pay, front pay or reinstatement, compensatory damages, emotional distress damages, punitive damages, pre-judgment interest, post-judgment interest and attorney fees.
Tampa law firm Papasov Law Group PLLC is representing her in the lawsuit.
