NEW ORLEANS – A group of current and former New Orleans Regional Transit Authority employees claim the agency and one of its supervisors denied them employment opportunities and compensation due to their race, according to a federal lawsuit.
Plaintiffs Simir Pollard, Benoit W. Tolbert Sr., Winston Hayes and Clarence Dorosan, who are all Black, filed their lawsuit against RTA and supervisor Joseph Held earlier this month in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
They contend RTA, which operates public transportation in Orleans Parish, and Held also retaliated against them for opposing their discrimination and failed to pay them owed wages.
“The RTA and its supervisory officials engaged in a common pattern and practice within that unit that included: (a) the preferential distribution of overtime, call-out opportunities, and other benefits to a favored employee, Gary Edwards, a white male who held no supervisory or administrative title; (b) the disregard and circumvention of workplace safety protocols; (c) the failure to pay compensation lawfully due; and (d) indifference to, and reprisal against, employees who complained of race discrimination,” the plaintiffs wrote in their 20-page complaint.
According to the filing, Pollard was employed at RTA’s Carrollton facility first as a traction power technician, then promoted to traction power supervisor. Tolbert was a traction power technician at the same facility until his constructive discharge in May. Hayes has been a traction power technician at the facility since April 2024. Dorosan also is employed at the facility as a traction power technician.
Held, as manager of traction power at RTA, is responsible for RTA’s rail and traction-power maintenance operations at the Carrollton facility.
Pollard claims he was “personally involved” in events giving rise to his coworkers’ claims.
First, he alleges he was directed by management to transport Tolbert for a drug test, but was never provided the documentation usually generated for such a test.
He also claims he transported an injured Dorosan to seek medical treatment after a workplace accident, and allegedly was directed – but refused – to prepare a report of Dorosan’s accident that Pollard says he knew to be false.
The plaintiffs also allege that Edwards – while he holds no administrative or supervisory position at RTA – was permitted to exercise “informal authority” over work assignments, received preferential access to overtime and call-out opportunities, and was excused from the “standards of seniority and accountability” applied to others.
Under a collective bargaining agreement between RTA and a local workers’ union, required overtime and call-out work is to be assigned to qualified employees by seniority from a posted, rotating overtime list.
But that did not happen, the plaintiffs contend.
“By diverting those opportunities to Edwards, the RTA disregarded its own binding assignment procedure, corroborating that the preferential treatment of a white employee was intentional rather than the product of any neutral business rule,” the lawsuit states.
After filing internal complaints of a hostile work environment, Pollard also claims he was subjected to “retaliatory treatment.”
The plaintiffs also allege that a public records request was made to RTA on June 22 by their counsel. On June 23, RTA acknowledged the request but claimed “additional time is needed.”
As of the filing of the July 6 complaint, RTA still had not produced the requested records.
The plaintiffs seek compensatory damages including lost wages and benefits, unpaid wages and overtime compensation, penalty wages, liquidated damages, punitive damages; attorney fees as well as pre-judgment and post-judgment interest.
King Norris LLC in New Orleans is representing Pollard and the other plaintiffs in the action.
