FORMER pit manager Stephen S. Abonita has sued Imperial Pacific International LLC in federal court alleging discrimination based on his race, national origin, and color.
Abonita, through attorney Bruce Berline, is also suing IPI for breach of contract. The plaintiff is demanding a jury trial and is asking the court for an undetermined amount of damages.
According to his 17-page lawsuit, IPI discriminated against Abonita by paying a higher salary to a white American pit manager with significantly less casino experience, assigning that person better shifts than the plaintiff, and providing him with a more generous housing package than the plaintiff.
IPI also paid ethnically Chinese pit managers from China. Malaysia, and the United States with less casino experience more than the plaintiff for doing the same job, and even paid the plaintiff’s white, black, and Asian subordinates from the United States a higher salary, the lawsuit further alleged.
It stated that after Super Typhoon Yutu in Oct. 2018, IPI discriminated against the plaintiff and other Filipino casino workers.
“IPI scheduled plaintiff and the Filipino workers for fewer shifts than non-Filipino workers. IPI then planned to terminate and repatriate many of the Filipino casino workers, despite them having time remaining on their employment contracts. These workers protested IPI’s actions and plaintiff supported these workers. IPl expressed anger towards plaintiff because he supported these Filipino workers. IPl also refused plaintiff’s vacation request, told him to resign, and refused to promote him — while instead promoting U.S. citizen employees who had previously worked under plaintiff,” the lawsuit stated.
“Through these actions, IPl effectively forced plaintiff to resign. IPI’s discrimination and constructive discharge of plaintiff left him out of work for many months, forced him to accept a lower-paying job in the Philippines, and caused him significant and prolonged emotional distress,” the lawsuit added.
According to the lawsuit, IPI’s discriminatory practices are evidenced and documented by the countless Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and federal court complaints filed against IPI, including complaints filed by other Filipino employees.
“Indeed, even IPI’s own human resources manager, Carmen Hasselback, testified in another proceeding that IPI was discriminating against its Filipino casino employees by paying them a lower wage than employees of other races and national origins who had less experience,” the lawsuit stated.
As for the plaintiff, the EEOC found “reasonable cause” to believe that IPI discriminated against him based on his national origin, but it was unable to successfully resolve the dispute through conciliation.
Abonita has 18 years of experience in the casino industry and was recruited by IPI in 2015 to work in its casino on Saipan.
His lawsuit was filed in the District Court for the NMI on Dec. 13, 2022.
