Duwanikia "Monica" Hill alleges that her firing as an account manager came after she submitted an abuse complaint against her manager earlier in the year. Hill alleges in the suit that her former manager, a white woman, made disparaging, racist remarks, according to the suit filed this month.
"We always take complaints seriously and investigate properly and thoroughly," Sony spokesperson Rosemary Flynn Smith told CNN Business. "We hire all of our employees with a committed focus to their success.”
CNN Business could not reach Hill’s manager, who is named in the suit, for comment. The news outlet received an out-of-office response from the manager’s email noting she was on “extended leave.”
Hill’s suit also blasted HR and notes that an employee in the department who worked with Hill’s manager for two decades “summarily dismissed” Hill's complaints and “ramp[ed] up the retaliation” against Hill, the suit notes. The suit also requests that the court issue an injunction order mandating Sony to fix HR.
"It's not just a broken system. It's a system that they intentionally have broken," said Hill's attorney Nancy Abrolat. "They have HR acting as an arm to help cover up what they're doing instead of serving as a liaison between management and employee.