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Suit alleging retaliation, mistreatment of Haitian workers settled

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A Delaware poultry processing company has agreed to settle a retaliation lawsuit that accused it of terminating a translator after he complained about the company's poor treatment of Haitian workers.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Monday that Frantz Morette was fired by Millsboro, Del.-based Mountaire Farms Inc. after he complained repeatedly to his supervisors and the human resources department that the Haitian workers were being treated poorly by the company's supervisors compared with their non-Haitian co-workers.

The EEOC said Mr. Morette told company management that supervisors often refused to allow the Haitian workers to take bathroom breaks while allowing non-Haitian workers to do so, and refused to provide the Haitian workers with the training necessary for higher-paying jobs at its facility.

He also told company management that non-Haitian supervisors and co-workers often harassed the Haitian workers by throwing chickens and chicken parts at them, the EEOC said.

The EEOC said Mr. Morette was fired in September 2011, a few days after he told a manager that a supervisor had refused to allow a Haitian worker to take a restroom break.

The EEOC lawsuit charged Mountaire Farms with violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Terms of the $48,000 settlement include a requirement that Mountaire Farms revise its existing anti-discrimination policy to include procedures to report discrimination, among other provisions.

“It is of great concern to the EEOC when an employer fires an employee simply because he complained about unlawful conduct,” Lynette A. Barnes, regional attorney for the EEOC's Charlotte, N.C., district office, said in a statement “The anti-retaliation provisions of Title VII are essential to the attainment of a workplace free of discrimination.”

A company attorney could not be reached for comment.