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Former employees sue CVS over allegations of racial discrimination
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Four former CVS employees in New York are suing the pharmacy company, claiming their supervisors told them to target Hispanic and black shoppers when looking for shoplifters, the New York Times reports.
The former employees, Kerth Pollack, 41; Delbert Sorhaindo, 26; Lacole Simpson, 32; and Sheree Steele, 46; were store detectives who worked in the company's loss prevention department, the paper said. They say were directed to racially profile nonwhite customers for possible shoplifters. The two accused supervisors are Anthony Salvatore and Adbul Selene.
From The New York Times:
The suit says that one of the supervisors, Anthony Salvatore, routinely told subordinates that “black people always are the ones that are the thieves,” and that “lots of Hispanic people steal.” The second supervisor, Abdul Selene, frequently advised detectives, known at CVS as market investigators, to “watch the black and Hispanic people to catch more cases,” the suit said.
"CVS Health has firm nondiscrimination policies that it rigorously enforces," Carolyn Castel, a spokeswoman for CVS, wrote in an email, according to the Associated Press.
The suit was filed on Wednesday at the Federal District Court in Manhattan.
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