A black man is suing an Iowa trucking company, claiming he was fired as a driver for refusing to cut his dreadlocks.
Drew Harvey, 26, accused TMC Transportation and two of its employees of racism in a lawsuit he filed on September 26.
Harvey applied to work as a truck driver with the company on June 4 and was scheduled to begin his orientation on June 24, according to court documents obtained by People.
According to the complaint, Harvey was called into a meeting with an HR representative the day after the introduction.
Harvey was allegedly told that “he had to cut his hair” or “he would be fired.” The reason given, according to the lawsuit, was that his hair was a “safety issue.”
Drew Harvey, 26, has filed a lawsuit against TMC Transportation, claiming he was racially discriminated against and wrongfully fired because of his haircut
In an interview with We are Iowagave Harvey an insight into how this meeting with HR went.
“You did a fantastic job,” he remembered being told. “But you have to cut your hair by Friday, otherwise you can’t continue with the business.”
Harvey said his supervisor told him it was company policy that employees must have short hair so the hard hat would fit properly.
Harvey claimed that this was the first time he had heard of the company having a specific policy regarding the hairstyles of its employees.
To fix the problem, Harvey said in the lawsuit he offered to cut or style his hair differently.
The lawsuit also says he offered to wear his hair in a shawl or buy another hard hat so safety wouldn’t be an issue.
The company allegedly rejected these proposals, which the lawsuit alleges was the case when his employment was terminated.
Harvey, who traveled about six hours to work from his home in Crete, Illinois, was “sent home on a bus in tears.”
Harvey’s attorney, Benjamin Lynch, claims TMC has not contacted them about the active lawsuit
“TMC’s policies are racist and inconsistently enforced,” Harvey’s complaint states.
Harvey believes this because he claims he saw that several other non-black employees, male and female, had long hair and had not suffered any form of retaliation from the company.
As such, the lawsuit alleged that this long hair policy was unfairly enforced, violating the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
The lawsuit states that Harvey “will suffer injuries and damages, including but not limited to emotional distress, loss of wages, loss of benefits, loss of future earnings, and other employment benefits.”
Harvey is seeking an unspecified amount of damages.
Benjamin Lynch, Harvey’s attorney, said his client is currently looking for work.
“That petition says he literally cried on the way home,” Lynch told People. “That’s right, he was very upset about this. He drove six hours to get here and got canned on the second day because of his hair.”
He continued, “So he’s upset. It’s a real thing and we haven’t really gotten a fix for it yet because I haven’t heard from TMC yet. So it’s disturbing.”
Lynch claimed that more than a dozen other former TMC employees have similar complaints to Harvey.
‘So next to him [Harvey] Because he wants a resolution to his case, he also wants to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again,” Lynch said.
DailyMail.com approached TMC for comment.