Former Kohler employee sues over racial harassment

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A former employee for Kohler Co. says in a new federal lawsuit he was routinely harassed by co-workers who called him racial slurs on the job based on his Hmong heritage.

James Yang worked for the Sheboygan County-based plumbing manufacturing giant for two years as a material handler.

According to a Feb. 23 complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, Yang’s co-workers, including two of his supervisors, often hurled the slurs at him and that he eventually left the job when his complaints about it weren’t addressed to his satisfaction.

A spokesman for Kohler Co. told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Feb. 25 it was company policy not to comment publicly on pending litigation involving current or former employees.

According to the complaint, Yang started working for Kohler in January 2022 and met the company’s business expectations but was later subjected to “severe and pervasive” slurs.

A general manager was aware of the harassment, but allegedly refused to stop it, the lawsuit says.

Yang filed a complaint with human resources in August 2024, prompting an investigation by the department, which later supported his claims, according to the lawsuit.

Kohler fired two employees over the incidents, but Yang’s attorney alleges in the lawsuit that Kohler “failed to take necessary steps to redress the racial harassment.”

“The work environment just became unbearable for him … to where he had to leave,” Yang’s attorney William F. Sulton told the Journal Sentinel in an interview. “What happened to him was wrong, and how [Kohler] handled it was problematic.”

The Journal Sentinel obtained a copy of a Nov. 11, 2024, letter by Kohler to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s Equal Rights Division. The letter was Kohler’s response to Yang’s complaint a few months earlier to human resources and also included documentation summarizing what happened.

The company said in the letter it took Yang’s complaint seriously, noting that it “promptly and thoroughly” investigated the matter, but asserted it “did everything the right way in this case.” It called for Yang’s complaint to be dismissed.

Yang, whose parents are Hmong refugees, at one point asked for and was granted a transfer within the company, one that would have him working with an Asian supervisor.

Within weeks of getting the transfer, on Sept. 27, 2023, one of the co-workers who Yang accused of targeting him sent him a message on Facebook Messenger that referenced Asians eating dogs.

“I have been so mentally exhausted to the point where I have wished to have been born White so I would not have to deal with any of this racist harassment,” Yang wrote in an exhibit that was included among the documents sent to Workforce Development.

Yang has found other work since leaving Kohler. He is seeking damages for lost wages and benefits, as well as damages for emotional stress and punitive damages.