A gay employee who
successfully sued wholesale giant Costco for allowing a hostile
work environment has returned to court, this time to get his
job back.
Juan Valera of Los
Angeles is arguing to the L.A. superior court that Costco has
failed to rehire him as a photo manager as an act of
retaliation to his original suit, according to KABC. On
December 3 he was awarded $420,000.
A new general manager,
John Weaver, came to the warehouse in Inglewood, Calif., in
2005. Valera had been working at that location for more than
two decades.
Weaver had casually
used the word "queers" in a statement. Valera took a
leave of absence to deal with stress. When he returned to work,
he found that his pay was cut and his workload doubled, his
attorney Leo Terrell said.
According to the
report, Valera was forced to take another leave of absence.
When he returned he was demoted to cashier and was eventually
stripped of his benefits. The defense argued that Valera lost
his benefits under Costco policy because he was gone for six
months.
Elaine Ponce replaced
Valera in May 2006 as a photo manager. She filmed a mock
training video featuring another Costco employee, Kenneth
Ellison, mimicking Valera and calling him Auntie Juan. In the
video he turned to fellow employee Carlos Taylor and said,
"Carlos, I have a dilemma; next Friday is my Auntie
Juan's bar mitzvah. He is a transsexual."
According to Costco,
Ponce and another employee involved were demoted after the
manager was shown the tape.