Arkansas company ordered to pay $250K for subjecting employee to racially hostile work environment

Jeffrey Sand Co. of Pine Bluff has been ordered to pay $250,000 in punitive damages for subjecting a black former employee to a racially hostile work environment.

The company dredges sand from the Arkansas River and has offices in North Little Rock and Conway. It was sued in 2016 by a former employee, Adrian Bryant, who worked for the company twice, including a five-year stint that ended when he was fired in February 2013.

Through attorney Austin Porter Jr. of Little Rock, Bryant contended in a two-day federal jury trial that he was regularly harassed by a white foreman, Jerry Skaggs, beginning in 2010. Bryant said Skaggs called him several derogatory names on a daily basis and refused his requests to stop.

The lawsuit said Bryant complained to the plant manager, Kenny Bolton, and to the company’s vice president, Joe Wickliffe, who referred the matter to Bolton but also directed Bolton to send another foreman to the Cora dredge, where Bryant worked, to investigate.

Read more: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/feb/02/harassed-worker-awarded-damages/