NEW ORLEANS – A former Folgers Coffee employee has filed a lawsuit against the company, saying she was discriminated against due to her race and gender and eventually wrongfully terminated.
Plaintiff Lynetta Shere Coats filed her lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, New Orleans Division. Coats, a resident of St. Tammany Parish, is Black.
“Defendant subjected Plaintiff to discipline for conduct that it tolerated when engaged in by non- Black employees, by male employees, and by employees who had not complained of discrimination,” she alleges in her 20-page complaint.
Defendant The Folger Coffee Company operates a coffee roasting and manufacturing facility in New Orleans on Old Gentilly Road.
According to the lawsuit, Folgers hired Coats in 2008 as an hourly production employee at its Gentilly site. She worked for the company for about 17 years.
She claims she maintained “perfect” attendance and was never cited for a safety violation or quality violation. Twice, she was selected for the company’s “Quarterly Best” recognition.
She notes in her suit that each time Folgers declined to post or present the award “in the ordinary course,” and instead had her department deliver it to her.
Coats alleges in her suit that she reported a male technician’s threats in February 2019 to Human Resources, and filed a police report.
But rather than remove or discipline the other technician, Coats contends she was suspended with pay while the matter was being investigated.
In the end, Folgers allegedly adopted the position that the male technician “does not talk like that.”
After, Coats alleges she complained to Human Resources that her report was not taken seriously and that she felt management was targeting her for complaining.
Soon after, in 2020, Folgers placed Coats on a Step 3 Performance Improvement Plan, or PIP, based on an accusation made by coworkers that she had taken a chair belonging to a new hire.
“Plaintiff did not take the chair, and Defendant developed no evidence that she had,” the complaint states.
In June 2020, the company informed Coats that she would be forced to train in the Probat area, a physically demanding and extreme-temperature assignment.
No other female technician has ever been forced into the Probat area, she points out in her suit.
Then, in November 2021, a Human Resources manager denied Coats’ vacation request. She asked off to accommodate her child’s school schedule, she claims. The manager, she alleges, denied the request without explanation and offered unpaid leave instead.
Coats also alleges Folgers repeatedly denied her requests to cross-train in blending or green coffee. Instead, the company allowed less senior technicians to cross-train in skills ahead of her.
Then, in 2023, Coats began in vitro fertilization treatment. She advised Folgers that she would not be able to perform the green coffee assignment while pregnant.
She ended up suffering three separate pregnancy losses, the last of which resulted in a tubal pregnancy.
“Defendant treated Plaintiff’s pregnancies, and her pursuit of fertility treatment, as grounds to question her ability to perform her job and to justify limiting her advancement,” her complaint states.
More recently, in September 2025, she alleges a white male coworker was not written up, suspended, or terminated after filling feed bins with the wrong coffee – she, however, was suspended for the same thing, even after denying it and walking a union representative through what she had actually done.
A month later, Folgers terminated her employment. Coats claims she was never provided with written notice of her termination and Folgers has never stated a reason for it.
At the time of her termination, Coats was on approved short-term disability leave. She underwent surgery on Nov. 19, 2025, and her benefits continued through Dec. 30, 2025.
Folgers removed her from its group health plan and required her to pay for continuation coverage while she was still receiving payroll payments from the company.
Coats seeks back pay, lost benefits, and prejudgment interest; front pay in lieu of reinstatement, or in the alternative, reinstatement to her former position with full seniority and benefits; compensatory damages; punitive damages; attorney’s fees; and pre- and post-judgment interest.
The Law Office of Attorney Natalie Blackman in Baton Rouge is representing Coats in the suit.
