AMMON — A former local Chick-fil-A employee is suing the Ammon franchise operator after he says he was subjected to relentless racial harassment by his co-workers and superiors.
Thomas Wade is suing Ammon Chick-fil-A franchise operator Lauren Mosteller for discrimination, a hostile work environment, retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Mosteller has denied the allegations in her response to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Wade, a Black man, started working at Chick-fil-A as a cook in December 2022. After being hired, Wade says he applied for the restaurant’s leadership development program but was not accepted. Instead, Mosteller reportedly gave the position to a different white employee.
The lawsuit states that Wade’s supervisor at the time was a shift lead. Several other members of the shift leader’s family, including his wife and five of their children, also worked at the restaurant.
These people have not been sued, so EastIdahoNews.com has chosen not to name them.
On March 23, Wade reportedly intervened when he saw one of the shift lead’s sons and another employee “antagonizing a third employee.”
Court documents say the son told Wade to “Shut up, ape, before I put you in a cage.” Wade told the son to stop antagonizing the employee and said he would report them to management.
The son reportedly responded with a slur of “monkey-looking a**” and stated, “My parents own this store.” Wade immediately reported the incident to the shift lead, who, according to the lawsuit, “did nothing” about it.
The next day, Wade met with the general manager and the back-of-house director and told them about the incident. (Neither of them is listed in the lawsuit, so they will not be named in this article.)
The lawsuit states that the general manager apologized but then said, “It was not as bad as if someone like her had said it.” The shift lead and his family are Hispanic, and the general manager is white.
“Neither (the general manager) nor (the back of house director) disciplined (the shift lead’s son) for making the racist comments or (the shift lead) for failing to discipline his son or bring the matter to their attention,” says the lawsuit.
Wade then took two days off to “give himself some space.” When he returned to work, he claims the shift lead’s family “resumed making racist comments, which occurred over the next seven months.”
Between March and October 2023, Wade reportedly made between 25 and 30 reports to either the general manager or the back-of-house director of racist comments from co-workers directed at either him or others.
The lawsuit states that two of the shift lead’s sons called Wade an “ape,” “monkey,” “n-word,” and “antique farming equipment” in reference to slavery.
They also reportedly told Wade they would “put him in a cage” and stated, “Of course, he works at Chick-fil-A; he’s Black, so he loves chicken.”
On one occasion, Wade says he walked in on one of the shift lead’s sons whipping another employee with a towel while the employee stated, “Please master, I’ll work harder,” and “Yes, master.”
The employee then reportedly told Wade he “would know about getting whipped since he is Black.”
On June 11, Wade made an appointment to speak with the general manager and the back-of-house director about the ongoing racial harassment. While waiting inside the office, he reportedly heard one of the shift lead’s daughters say, “Look like a monkey, act like a monkey.”
Wade asked her to repeat what she said, and she reportedly repeated the racist comment. During his meeting with the general manager and back-of-house director, Wade described the racial harassment, including the statement he had just heard.
The general manager reportedly stated she would talk with the shift lead’s family, but according to the lawsuit, “nothing changed.”
On July 24, Wade says he was working back of the house near closing time when a shift lead’s son and another employee called him over to see something they had written on the freezer.
On the freezer, the two had written a racial slur. Again, Wade reported this incident to the back-of-house director.
According to the lawsuit, the back-of-house director “appeared annoyed and told (Wade) that if he wanted to be shift lead, he needed to get along with the (shift lead’s) family, because several of them were in leadership positions, and she couldn’t fire them.”
Wade also told the back-of-house director that another co-worker consistently called him “blackie,” “n-word” and “monkey.” The back-of-house director told Wade she would speak with the general manager. Still, he never heard back from either of them about the incident.
On or about July 28, one of the shift lead’s sons was reportedly suspended for sexually harassing a co-worker. The lawsuit says he continued acting out after returning from suspension and was fired but was rehired a month later.
On Aug. 9, Wade told the shift lead and his wife that their daughter had just called him a “back-of-house monkey.”
The shift lead and his wife reportedly stated they “could do nothing because she was a supervisor.” Wade said that he told them that because they were shift leads, he wanted them to report it to the general manager and back-of-house director.
That same month, the general manager and back-of-house director reportedly asked Wade “why he would want to work in a place where he was being harassed all the time.”
Black employee is fired
On or about Oct. 14, two days before Mosteller fired Wade, a co-worker reportedly “compared (Wade’s) skin tone to the shade of a cardboard box.” The lawsuit stated this was in reference to the “‘color’ tests performed on Black people during the Jim Crow era.”
On the same day, the same employee called Wade a “monkey,” reportedly in front of the back-of-house director. Wade also reported to the back-of-house director about the towel-whipping incident and that an employee had called him a “monkey.”
Wade says he told the back-of-house director that she “needed to do something about the ongoing harassment,” but she reportedly replied that she “wasn’t scared of him.”
On Oct. 16, Wade was fired because he “refused to tolerate and continues to report racist behavior and comments by his co-workers,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit stated that “(the back of house manager) and (general manager) believed it would be easier to terminate (Wade’s) employment than take any action to stop the other employee’s discriminatory behavior.”
On May 7, 2024, Wade dually filed a charge of discrimination with the Idaho Human Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
On Aug. 28, the Idaho Human Rights Commission found “probable cause to believe that illegal discrimination and retaliation occurred.” On Dec. 18, the commission issued a notice of right to sue.
Then, on Feb. 19, 2025, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a determination, giving “substantial weight to the findings of the Idaho Human Rights Commission.” On Feb. 26, the EEOC also issued a notice to sue.
As part of the lawsuit, Wade is asking for “compensatory and general damages, as well as statutorily available damages, punitive damages, pre-judgment interest, attorneys fees and costs, and further relief as the court deems just and proper.”
In response to the lawsuit, Mosteller admitted to meeting with Wade multiple times, but denies all other allegations against her.
Mosteller claims that Wade “failed to exhaust mandatory administrative remedies under the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, or the Idaho Human Rights Act to the extent his claim and allegations exceed the scope of the prior charge or pre-date the relevant time period.”
She also claims that Wade delayed in telling her about the harassment and says in the lawsuit that the claims are “frivolous, unreasonable or groundless and may have been brought in bad faith.”
“(Mosteller) alleges that (Wade’s) claims, in whole or in part, are barred because (Mosteller) did not discriminate, harass, or retaliate against (Wade), and any and all decisions made by (Mosteller) regarding (Wade’s) employment were based on reasonable, lawful and non-discriminatory factors,” states the response.
EastIdahoNews.com reached out to Mosteller, who provided the following statement:
“Our organization has had the privilege of employing over 1,200 team members in the past 14 years, and we take immense pride in the inclusive and supportive culture we’ve cultivated,” says Mosteller. “This is the first time we have ever faced a lawsuit from a current or former employee. While we strongly dispute the profoundly disturbing claims that have been made, we take any allegation of misconduct seriously. We are committed to fully cooperating with the legal process and remain focused on fostering a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for everyone on our team.”
We then reached out to the Chick-fil-A corporate office, and a spokesperson provided the following statement:
“This matter involves a franchisee, not Chick-fil-A Inc. Franchisees are independent operators responsible for all employment decisions in their restaurants. Chick-fil-A Inc. is not involved in or aware of their employment matters.”
We also reached out to the Ammon Chick-fil-A store in an attempt to contact the general manager, back-of-house director or shift leads. They did not answer, so we left a voicemail but have not heard back.
Court filings state the parties have “chosen to participate in mediation” which must be held before July 2, 2026. If mediation is not successful, the case could go to trial.
According to court filings, a status conference is scheduled for this case on July 7, 2026.
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