In a lawsuit captioned Batista v. Best Buy Stores, NY Sup Ct Index 151565-2016 (filed 2/25/16), plaintiff – a member of Best Buy’s “Geek Squad” – alleges that she was subjected to discrimination based on her gender and race. She asserts claims of gender discrimination, hostile work environment, constructive discharge, and retaliation.
She alleges, among other things, that defendant required plaintiff and other Geek Squad members to participate in a web-based communication forum known as “Group Me”, and that after logging in to this forum she “was shocked to discover that it was overflowing with repulsive and inappropriate sexual and racial (anti-Hispanic and anti-Asian) content, which was sickening to behold, including numerous inappropriate photographs.”
She also alleged:
Defendant [Moe] Rahmati repeatedly made sexually inappropriate comments to Plaintiff Batista. For example he put a THOT (“that ho over there”) survey on bulletin board, and then asked Plaintiff questions to determine whether she was a “ho” (whore). Defendant Rahmati also made sexually inappropriate comments to other female employees in the presence of Plaintiff Batista or of which she became aware. Defendant Rahmati also made references to “choppy THOTs” a derogatory term for Dominican or Haitian “golddiggers”. Plaintiff Batista is Dominican. He stated that all Hispanic women were good for was having babies, which was deeply hurtful and disturbing to Plaintiff Batista. Many other disparaging statements about certain kinds of Hispanic people had been made in the employee forum, with the apparent approval of Ms. Feliciano and Defendant Rahmati. Furthermore Defendant Rahmati routinely bullied and cyber bullied employees, including plaintiff, based upon inappropriate sexual statements and racial and gender discrimination.