Ex-Macon Safelite employee says discrimination led to her firing, seeks $300K in lawsuit
A Macon woman who previously worked at a Safelite store in the city sued last week for at least $300,000 after she complained to the company’s human resources department and was fired a week later, the lawsuit alleges.
Kristi Lumpkin filed the lawsuit against the glass repair company on April 23, alleging she was discriminated and retaliated against at work after a “one-time sexual encounter” with a co-worker. She said she was subjected to being berated and insulted by that coworker in the following months, and reports to her supervisors went ignored.
She was then fired a little over a week after she filed a complaint with the HR department, according to the lawsuit.
Other than her request for $300,000 in damages, she’s requesting a jury trial. She’s represented by Tyler Kaspers in the lawsuit.
Safelite didn’t respond to request for comment prior to publication. A lawsuit only represents one side of an argument and the allegations haven’t yet been proven in court, nor has Safelite filed a reply to the lawsuit in court records.
Mistreatment was witnessed by coworker
Lumpkin had worked for the glass repair company since November 2021 as a customer advocate at 2029 Oglesby Place. But after her encounter with her coworker in June 2024, everything changed at work, the lawsuit said.
After that encounter, the coworker and “a number of Lumpkin’s other male co-workers began treating Lumpkin differently,” the lawsuit alleged. The coworker forcefully told Lumpkin how to perform her job, regularly insulted her performance and instructed her to lie to customers, according to the lawsuit.
He would leave the store without closing the door, making Lumpkin close the door for him as well as “repeatedly leaving a mess for Lumpkin to clean up,” according to the lawsuit.
Lumpkin complained to one of her supervisors on multiple occasions whenever the coworker would speak to her in a degrading and inappropriate manner, but, according to the lawsuit, her supervisor told her that “you guys are going to have to be able to work together.”
Another coworker witnessed one of the encounters and told a supervisor about the incident. It’s unclear if any discipline was imposed afterward.
Blame for money mishap
On one occasion, Lumpkin was sick and away from work between June 29 and July 2, 2024. When she came back, “the branch’s finances were in disarray,” according to the lawsuit.
“The money did not add up, there was not enough money for the weekly deposit, and there (were) no deposit slips for the dates Lumpkin was absent,” the lawsuit said. “Instead, (the supervisor) handed Lumpkin a bag of money labeled ‘July 5.’”
Lumpkin then received an email from Safelite’s audit team, stating that the case deposits cannot be reconciled, according to the complaint. When she asked her supervisor where the money was, the supervisor “attempted to blame Lumpkin and demand that, from now on, Lumpkin take all of the money for deposits,” the lawsuit said.
She said she was being unfairly blamed, which prompted her to reach out to the district manager, as she didn’t feel comfortable ensuring the money from customers was fully accounted for at the end of the day because she wasn’t directly receiving the money from the customers, the lawsuit said.
The harassment from her coworker carried on throughout July. In early August, Lumpkin was threatened by an agitated customer, but her managers didn’t do anything to assist her or attempt to alleviate the situation, according to the lawsuit. She contacted Safelite’s HR office and filed a complaint regarding unfair treatment and lack of assistance from her supervisors.
Even though the HR department said that the matter would be addressed and resolved, a little over a week later, she was fired and told that her position was no longer needed, according to the lawsuit.
“Lumpkin would not have been treated differently than her male coworkers if she were a male, and would not have been terminated if she had not complained about unfair treatment on the basis of sex,” the lawsuit said.
