CHARLESTON – A Puerto Rican man says he was the victim of racial discrimination and harassment by Alford Home Solutions.
Jose Gonzales filed his complaint August 11 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Alford Home Solutions and owner/president Chris Alford. Alford Home Solutions is a residential construction and repair business that also does pest control.
According to the complaint, Gonzales worked for Alford until he felt he had to quit the job in March 2022. He was a foreman in training. During his time with the company, Gonzales says he was exposed to and witnessed “the ongoing use of racial slurs, racial discrimination and race-based harassment.”
He says employees, including supervisors, regularly used racially derogative slurs and references. He says they regularly made racial jokes and homophobic slurs.
The complaint also details when a Puerto Rican co-worker wanted to be moved to a crew Gonzales worked on, but that request was refused on the grounds that Derek Torres “wanted to switch to a crew on which a Puerto Rican employee already worked.”
“They will clash,” the complaint says the defendants argued in a manager meeting. “They will (not) get along. This guy’s Puerto Rican, this guy’s Puerto Rican,they both will have short tempers, there’s no way that will work.”
“Racism, racial harassment and racial discrimination were prevalent and pervasive at defendants’ place of employment during the time plaintiff worked for defendants,” the complaint states. “Defendants’ Human Resources Manager, Erin Kendall, provided sworn testimony in a related civil action that defendants had serious race problems during the time plaintiff worked for defendants.”
Numerous employees, past and present, have made claims of racial harassment and dicrimination to defendants directly, through civil ligitation and through the West Virginia Human Rights Commission, according to the complaint. But, it says defendants refused to take any prompt or effective actions to address the situation.
“Chris Alford falsely denied under oath that he was aware of a single race issue or complaint during the existence of defendant Alford Home,” the complaint states. “However, during a recorded meeting with Meredith Aliff, who was a supervisory employee of defendants, defendant Chris Alford admitted that defendant Alford had serious race issues and explained why he was unwilling to address the racial issue. …
“If I had to like disciplinary (sic) every time somebody said a racial comment out there, that’s all I would get done.”
In that recorded meeting, Alford also compared racism to drug use by his employees who work on customers’ homes.
“To me that’s no different than if I fired every person that ever got caught smoking weed, we wouldn’t have anybody there either, you know what I mean? …
“I’m saying they’re going to be filthy, they’re going to be nasty, they’re going to talk bad to each other, they’re going to dog each other and probably call each other names which would include racial comments, whatever, you know even though there’s all white people in the room … I’m trying to tell you, in the contracting industry, that type of person, in West Virginia, that’s gonna be that.”
The complaint says Alford also sympathized with one supervisored named Kevin Murphy, who admitted he had referred to another employee using the N-word.
“I said to me, I, from my standpoint, in my opinion – you take it for what it is, you don’t have to like it or whatever. But my opinion is if you have a subordinate and they get in your face and cuss you up one side and down the other, to me that’s just as offensive as making a racial comment,” Alford said.
Gonzales says Murphy called him the N-word in January 2020. During a subsequent meeting with Alford and Director of Operations Aaron Jefferson, Murphy admitted saying that to Gonzales. Still, Gonzales says the defendants said they would need to continue its investigation.
“Defendants failed to take any prompt or effective steps to address this racial harassment, defendants never followed up with plaintiff,” the complaint states, noting Gonzales then asked to meet with Aliff to discuss his race complaints.
“Within minutes after tis converstation occurred, Ms. Aliff was summoned to defendant Chris Alford’s office and confronted about her interactions with plaintiff,” the complaint states. “During the meeting, defendant Chris Alford expressly prohibited Ms. Aliff from communicating with plaintiff about any race complaints.
“During the meeting, defendant Chris Alford falsely claimed that plaintiff had never made a race complaint and that the situation between plaintiff and Mr. Murphy had been handled.”
On February 5, 2020, Gonzales says he drafted a formal complaint and demand to give to Alford. Before he did so, Gonzales says stopped by Aliff’s office for her to review it.
“Jefferson closely monitored and observed Ms. Aliff’s meeting with plaintiff and engaged in conduct that both Ms. Aliff and plaintiff found to be intimidating,” the complaint states. “Within a few days after this meeting, defendants fired Ms. Aliff.”
Later, Gonzales sustained a workplace injury that required him to take off on workers’ compensation leave. When he eventually requested on multiple occasions to return to work on light duty, his requests were denied each time.
In December 2020, Alford appeared in a race discrimination case brought by Aliff. During his deposition, Alford said Gonzales (and all Puerto Ricans) had a temper and was overly emotional. He also said Gonzales acted aggressively and regularly berated two female call center employees to tears. Both call center employees denied Gonzales berated them in their own depositions.
Gonzales accused the defendants of racial and ethnicity discrimination, hostile work environment and retaliatory discharge, all of which are violations of the West Virginia Human Rights Act.
He seeks compensatory damages, general damages, punitive damages, court costs, attorney fees, pre- and post-judgment interests and other relief.
Gonzales is being represented by Kurt Entsminger and Michael P. Addair of Addair Entsminger PLLC in Charleston and by Phillip Estep of Estep Entsminger Law Group PLLC in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 22-C-660
