A major Coca Cola bottler faces a federal lawsuit for allegedly excluding male employees from an employer-sponsored team-building event.
In a suit filed Wednesday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) accuses Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast, Inc., of violating the Civil Rights Act by “denying male employees the same compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment offered and provided to female employees.”
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits job discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
On Sept. 10-11, 2024, the company—a bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola brand products throughout the Northeast United States—held a networking event at the Mohegan Sun and Casino in Connecticut, where female employees were exclusively invited. The event featured team-building exercises and was attended by speakers such as Jennifer Mann, president of Coca-Cola North America Operating Unit, and corporate executives from other companies, the lawsuit said.
The New Hampshire-based company excused approximately 250 female employees, who attended the event, from their work duties for the two days, and paid them their normal salary or wages, along with the hotel room charges.
The EEOC seeks compensation for “past and future pecuniary losses resulting from the unlawful employment practices,” in amounts to be determined at trial, according to the lawsuit.
“Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has long made the exclusion of one protected class of employees from an employer-sponsored event a violation of the law,” said Catherine L. Eschbach, acting EEOC general counsel, in a Feb. 18 statement. “Excluding men from an employer-sponsored event is a Title VII violation that the EEOC will act to remedy through litigation when necessary.”
Coca-Cola Northeast is a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan-based Kirin Holdings Company. Coca-Cola is not a defendant in the case, nor does it own any portion of the bottling operator.
In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, a Coke Northeast representative said: “The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast, Inc. challenging our Company’s right to hold a one-day event in September 2024.
“This event fully complied with existing EEOC regulation and its public commentary approving of such events. Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast finds it disappointing that the EEOC did not conduct a full investigation and we look forward to having our day in open court where the full story told to a jury will vindicate us.”
Under Title VII, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and programs may be unlawful if they involve an employer taking an action that is based on an employee’s sex or other protected characteristic.
The Trump administration has been advocating for merit-based practices in the workplace. On Jan. 21, 2025, after President Donald Trump assumed power, he issued an executive order titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.”
In the order, Trump said major corporations continue to adopt and “actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’”
These policies violate the “text and spirit” of civil rights laws, undermine national unity and the traditional American values of hard work, and “individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.”
Under the new mandate, all U.S. carriers must certify that the practice of hiring based on race and sex has ended, or face a federal investigation.
