The US Equal Opportunity Commission sued Coca-Cola for excluding male workers from a Women’s Forum event. The agency says the workers suffered financial losses and “emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience and mental anguish.”
A regional bottling company that is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola was the target of a lawsuit for sexual discriminationafter inviting exclusively women to a networking event sponsored by the company.
A Commission for Equal Employment Opportunities of the United States (EEOC), the US federal agency responsible for enforcing civil rights in the workplace, filed the lawsuit on behalf of a male US worker. Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast.
The worker complained to the federal agency that he had been excluded from a trip two-day networking aimed at around 250 womenheld in September 2024 at the Mohegan Sun resort and casino in Connecticut.
The lawsuit alleges that , based in Bedford, New Hampshire, violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964by excluding male workers from the event.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in New Hampshire District Court, challenges the type of diversity programs which the EEOC has aggressively targeted since President Donald Trump revamped the agency, created by Congress under the Civil Rights Act.
This new action comes just two weeks after the EEOC revealed it was investigate Nike, the largest sportswear company in the world, supposedly discrimination against white workers through its diversity policies, notes .
“Exclude men from an employer-sponsored event constitutes a violation of Title VII, which the EEOC will act to correct the whenever necessary,” he said. Catherine L. Eschbachacting attorney general for the EEOC, in a statement announcing the action against Coca-Cola Northeast.
The EEOC said that it brought the action after not been able to reach an agreement agreement with Coca-Cola Beverage Northeast, an independent Coca-Cola bottler serving New England and upstate New York.
In a statement sent to the Associated Press, Coca-Cola Northeast said it considers “It is regrettable that the EEOC did not conduct an investigation complete”, adding that he “looks forward to the day when he can present the full facts in court and expect to be exonerated.”
The company declined to comment on the details of the lawsuit.
In a LinkedIn post, Coca-Cola Northeast celebrated what it called its “first in-person Women’s Forum“, with the participation of 250 collaborators, describing it as a “reception and networking event“.
According to the publication, the speakers addressed topics such as navigating a male-dominated industrythe balance between professional and personal life, among others.
The EEOC lawsuit states that the company paid for the accommodationmeals and other benefits for participants, as well as their respective salariesrelieving them of their usual duties during that period.
The agency asks for compensation for all excluded men, claiming that they suffered not only financial lossesbut also “emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience and mental anguish”.
In its statement, the EEOC referred the public to its fact sheet on discrimination within the scope of diversity policies (DEI), a document that targets practices such as training, employee resource groups and scholarship programs.
The document does not go so far as to declare any practice as illegalbut notice that you are may constitute discrimination depending on how they are structured.
The president of the EEOC, Andrea Lucasappointed by Donald Trump, has long been a staunch critic of many corporate DEI practices. In December, Lucas published a message on social media appeal to white men to speak out if they had been subject to discrimination at work.
Civil rights activists and former Democratic members of the EEOC condemn his methods, which “put long-established practices at risk, recognized by the courts and intended to prevent discrimination and to eliminate structural barriers for women and minorities.”
Os programs targeting specific demographic groupssuch as networking events, have been the more vulnerable to legal action that contest diversity practices, according to David Glasgow, co-founder of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at New York University School of Law, which tracks DEI policy litigation.
“We call on organizations to transition from restricted to open groups, that is, to instead of limiting participation based on a specific group, open the program to everyone those who are committed to its content,” said Glasgow, who notes that most lawsuits against “targeted programs” were resolved after the targeted party opened the program to everyone.
“It is strange that the EEOC considers suing regional companies over a two-day women’s retreat to be a good use of limited resources, at a time when the discrimination against women in the workplace is still widely prevalent“, wrote Glasgow in an email sent to the AP.
