Alpine Country Club faces new discrimination lawsuit by former employee
A former employee is accusing Alpine Country Club of firing her because she is Black and made complaints against her supervisor alleging discrimination.
Shakia Dixon, who lives in Edgewater, filed a lawsuit against the country club saying that throughout her employment, her supervisor, Barbara Guarev, made harassing comments to her and others.
Elizabeth Thomas, attorney for Dixon, and John Tratnyek, attorney for Alpine Country Club, did not immediately respond to emails for comment.
Guarev told Dixon her natural hair was "messy" and she would roll her eyes and make faces when Dixon spoke to customers on the phone, the lawsuit says. Guarev also asked other employees if they thought Dixon was "nasty" or "rude," and made comments to a hostess about how fasting is unhealthy and tried to force Dixon to eat while she was observing Ramadan, the lawsuit says.
Dixon said she complained about the harassment around spring 2023 to Kyle Lippert, the food and beverage director, who told her he had already spoken to Andreas Plaitis and Rick Camac, the assistant general manager and general manager respectively, about Guarev's racism against the staff. Lippert said nothing had been done and encouraged Dixon to take her complaint to Plaitis.
The lawsuit says Plaitis told Dixon it was all in her head. Lippert escalated the issue to human resources, where staff talked to Dixon and others about Guarev's conduct before speaking to management, the suit says.
A month after Dixon complained to Lippert, several people from South Africa were hired onto the staff, and bar manager Marco Antenucci made comments that "they sounded like savages" when they spoke in their native language, the lawsuit says. According to the suit, a chef threw food at the South African staff.
A few months later, a meeting was held with staff members regarding the complaints against the bar manager and the chef's conduct, and they were told that complaints should go to management and not human resources.
Dixon said she heard a rumor her hours were going to be cut, so she would not work Mondays, but she was never "formally" instructed not to work that day. When she went to Diana Annazone, a food and beverage manager, Dixon was told she would "technically" not be working Mondays and that the decision was made by Plaitis. A month later, she was fired from her job for "lack of work."
The suit claims racial, ancestry and national origin harassment under New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination, racial, ancestry and national origin discrimination under the Law Against Discrimination, and retaliation.
Dixon is seeking several forms of damages, including monetary and noneconomic compensatory damages.
The country club also faced discrimination lawsuits by former employees in December 2022 and February 2023.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Alpine Country Club NJ faces lawsuit claiming discrimination
