Race Discrimination

In Auburn, Maine, a Lisbon man of Ethiopian decent who worked at a Walmart receiving center for four years is suing the company. He is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages along with attorneys’ fees and the cost of expert witnesses. The man, Abdulaziz Omar, states that the company discriminated against him due to his race and subsequently fired him to retaliate against his complaint about workplace discrimination and an injury he sustained while on the job. Omar started working for Walmart in 2006, but it appears the bulk of the trouble started in 2009. Omar states that he was treated less favorably by his supervisor than others who were not black. Omar claims that he was questioned about where he was from and that his response lead his supervisor to state he did not feel comfortable having Omar around his desk. Omar also claims that he was questioned about whether he spoke English which made him feel uncomfortable and targeted due to his race. According to the lawsuit, Omar repeated these complaints to the operations manager. It further states that these complaints were not addressed. According to Omar, a subsequent complaint to Walmart’s human resources department did result in the removal of a low performance rating due to the discriminatory treatment. Omar contends that the supervisor continued to discriminate against him and assigned him to tasks that resulted in a lower production rate the others.
In March of 2010 Omar claims he was injured on the job. He indicated he reported the injury, but was instructed not to see medical help due the cost the company would have to incur. The injury was not reported by the supervisor. Still in pain, Omar discussed the injury with the operations manager after a month had passed. The operations manager indicated he would investigate, but did not.
In April on 2006 Omar claims he was disciplined for something on the job. Omar reports that others had exhibited the same behavior, but had not