The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast, alleging sex discrimination after the bottler excluded men from a company-sponsored networking trip for women at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. The agency filed the case in New Hampshire federal court on behalf of a male employee, according to the lawsuit described in an announcement tied to the EEOC’s case work.
The EEOC alleged that the company violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by inviting women to the two-day event in September 2024 while not inviting male employees. The lawsuit said the trip involved about 250 women and challenged the kind of diversity programming the EEOC has pursued in recent years, including through enforcement actions after it failed to resolve issues at the conciliation stage.
In its statement announcing the lawsuit, the EEOC said it sought to act after it “failed to reach a conciliation agreement” with the company. Acting EEOC general counsel Catherine L. Eschbach said, “Excluding men from an employer-sponsored event is a Title VII violation that the EEOC will act to remedy through litigation when necessary,” according to the EEOC statement accompanying the filing.
The EEOC’s account also described the circumstances of the event. The lawsuit said Coca-Cola Northeast paid for lodging, meals and other benefits for attendees and paid their salaries while excusing them from regular work duties. The agency said it is seeking monetary compensation for a class of men who were excluded, describing harms that include not only financial losses but also “emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish,” as described in the complaint summary reported by AP.
Coca-Cola Northeast, in a statement sent to The Associated Press, rejected the EEOC’s characterization of what happened. The company said it “finds it disappointing that the EEOC did not conduct a full investigation and we look forward to having our day in open court when we can tell the full story and expect to be vindicated.” The company declined to comment further on the details of the lawsuit.
Beyond the litigation, the case comes in the context of the EEOC leadership and broader debates over corporate diversity practices. AP reported that EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas has been a critic of many corporate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and that, in December, Lucas posted a social media call-out urging white men to come forward if they have experienced discrimination at work.
As the EEOC targets “targeted programs,” civil-rights experts say outcomes in this area often hinge on whether employers keep the programs restricted or modify access. David Glasgow, co-founder of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU School of Law, which tracks anti-DEI litigation, said in an email to AP that lawsuits challenging “targeted programs” have often been settled after defendants open the programs to all.
Glasgow also urged organizations to shift “from cohorts to content,” which he described as opening programs to anyone committed to the program’s subject matter rather than limiting participation based on the demographic cohort. He said it was “a bit odd that the current iteration of the EEOC thinks that going after regional companies for hosting a two-day women’s retreat is a good use of limited resources,” given ongoing discrimination against women in the workplace, according to AP’s report.
For its part, the EEOC directed the public to a fact sheet on DEI-related discrimination that warns some diversity practices could veer into discrimination depending on how they are constructed, while not declaring any one practice categorically illegal in the guidance described by AP. The EEOC did not reply to further requests for comment on the lawsuit, and Coca-Cola Northeast said it would address the dispute in court.