A Big Apple sanitation contractor allegedly fired their only female driver for complaining about a co-worker who once worked an entire shift with his shirt off, talked about his penis size and tried to “forcibly shove cookies” in her mouth, a scathing lawsuit alleges.
Kristy Montoto, 44, was hired by Waste Connections Inc. in July 2018 to work as a driver where she’d pick up solid waste and recycling across the Bronx for the publicly traded company, the lawsuit, filed Saturday in Manhattan federal court, alleges.
A few days after she was hired, she was assigned to work with Evriviadia “Victor” Litras, who subjected her to “offensive and harassing” behavior, including frequent comments about his “penis size,” requests to romantically date her and “intrusive” comments about Montoto’s personal life, the suit states. Litras is not named as a defendant in the suit.
But the wannabe Lothario once “worked a full shift” with his shirt off — saying it was due to the heat, even though the work vehicle “was fully air conditioned” — and that he often described himself as being “built” and “buff,” court papers state.
Litras once allegedly told Montoto a story about a stripper he used to date and how an older man asked if he could watch Litras and the exotic dancer have sex, the suit alleges.
Bizarrely, he also tried “to forcibly shove cookies” in Montoto’s mouth and when she resisted, he told her to “eat it like a woman should,” the complaint alleges.
Litras would also get angry if Montoto’s cell phone rang during their route, asking if it was her boyfriend, and also told her he wanted to move to her neighborhood close to where she lived, the complaint states.
Montoto alleges Litras was also prone to making homophobic and trans-phobic comments about gay people and transgender people, who he called “tranies,” the suit states.
When Montoto was done with her training, she requested to never work with Litras again but he continued to request her as a partner, once loudly telling a supervisor, “give me the girl, I want the girl” and at other times, telling Montoto directly “You [sic] coming with me Kristy,” the suit states.
When Montoto complained about Litras, news of her allegations trickled all the way from the company’s Bronx workstation to their outpost in Brooklyn, effectively making her a “pariah,” the suit states.
“This caused male coworkers to avoid the Plaintiff, to resist working with her, she was labeled a ‘headache’, ” the suit alleges.
Montoto reported many of the allegations during a September meeting with District Manager Charles Mahoney, who is a defendant in the suit, but “no remedial action” was ever taken, even though interviews about the allegations were ostensibly done, the suit says.
By October, Montoto was fired “without adequate explanation, advance warning or any type of progressive discipline” and was told only she had “failed” the “introductory period,” just three days before her probationary period was scheduled to end, the suit alleges.
“It is the Plaintiff’s belief that her termination was unlawful, discriminatory and that it was in retaliation for her having complained of Litras’s offensive behavior, which the Defendant never addressed or corrected,” the suit states.
Waste Connections, a massive, nationwide waste services company, has at least four, multi-million dollar contracts with the city’s Department of Sanitation, totaling $65 million, according to records kept by the New York City comptroller. However, the DSNY claimed there were only two contracts, not four, and they expired in September 2019 but were never “closed out in the system.”
The DSNY had no further comment on the suit, and Waste Connections did not return a request for comment. Litras could not immediately be reached for comment.
