A former Comcast worker is suing the company after a store manager allegedly humiliated salespeople by ordering them to tie up the lowest-ranked employee to a chair and smash a cream pie into their face every month, according to a lawsuit.
David Figueroa, who is seeking more than $15,000, alleged the bizarre “assaults” were the creation of store manager Sally Fuentes Peterson. She wanted to “bully” workers into hitting their sales goals and receiving positive customer surveys, according to the suit filed this month in Connecticut state court.
At Comcast’s Plainville, Conn., store, Peterson repeatedly ordered the highest-ranking sales person of the month to tie the lowest-ranked consultant to a chair in the “back office” and then “assault that person by violently smashing a cream pie in their face,” the complaint said.
Peterson videotaped the alleged assaults and ordered other employees to record them, too, according to the lawsuit.
She allegedly kept track of those who were recently assaulted and those scheduled to be assaulted on a whiteboard in a back room, where names were written down next to a frowny-face emoji getting pied, according to the lawsuit.
Comcast has denied the allegations in the lawsuit.
“The company has zero tolerance for harassment, humiliation, or any behavior that compromises a respectful and safe workplace,” a spokesperson for telecom company told The Post in a statement.
“This matter is in litigation so we will not comment on the specific allegations, other than to say that we disagree with the claims in the complaint and its characterization of the alleged events, and intend to fully respond through the legal process.”
Figueroa, who quit his job at the store, is suing Comcast for constructive discharge and negligence – alleging the store policy violates state worker protections and that he was not informed of it before he was hired in February, according to the suit.
On Feb. 25, Figueroa allegedly saw his co-worker, Ty – whose name was seemingly listed on the whiteboard – being tied-up and pied in the back room by a co-worker with better sales results after Peterson ordered it, according to the lawsuit.
Figueroa also saw a video of an assistant sales manager named Jania, whose name is also listed on the whiteboard, being assaulted with a pie because she “had received a poor survey score from a customer,” the suit said.
On Feb. 27, Figueroa called Maranda Cody, a Comcast regional manager, and told her that the policies “made him feel uncomfortable and caused him concern as to whether he could continue being employed” by the company, according to the complaint.
Cody allegedly told Figueroa to send her a text documenting the complaints, so he messaged her, “I also felt uncomfortable with how the store handled reps not hitting certain metrics (tying them to a chair … and physically pieing them in the face),” the suit said.
Cody allegedly never responded to his message and Figueroa resigned, according to the suit.
Figueroa is seeking lost wages, damages, back pay, front pay and unspecified relief totaling at least $15,000, according to court filings.
