A gay couple is suing a solar panel company, alleging they were sexually harassed and retaliated against while working in Maine.
Wilmer Muchacho, 46, and Jose Cordero, 30, a married couple from New York City, started working in Holden as solar panel installers for Centre Electric around May 2023. The federal lawsuit says the Minnesota company discriminated against the couple before ultimately firing them.
The lawsuit, filed Oct. 14, in U.S. District Court of Maine in Bangor, alleges Centre Electric violated the Maine Human Rights Act, the federal Civil Rights Act and the Maine Whistleblowers’ Protection Act, as well as retaliated against the couple for reporting illegal conduct.
Muchacho and Cordero want a judge to order Centre Electric to provide civil rights training to employees, as well as award back pay for lost wages and unspecified compensatory damages. The couple wants the case to go to a jury trial.
Centre Electric did not respond to a request for comment.
“In the United States, everyone deserves to be treated with dignity at work, no matter who we love,” Muchacho told the Bangor Daily News. “We are putting our trust in a jury of Maine people to hear our story and to help us find justice.”
About four months after the couple started working in Holden, their coworkers started harassing them for being married, the lawsuit said. The coworkers called them slurs for gay men and referred to them as sexually transmitted diseases.
Muchacho and Cordero reported the harassment to their supervisor and they were transferred to another work site in Mattawamkeag. Coworkers at the new location also harassed the couple about their relationship, the lawsuit said. Coworkers allegedly threw food at the couple.
Centre Electric took no additional action to stop the harassment, according to the lawsuit. The company started retaliating against the men.
Other employees were allowed to go to their car to warm up on breaks, allowed meal and bathroom breaks and were given weekend work, the lawsuit said. It said the couple were denied all of those opportunities.
Muchacho and Cordero were terminated from Centre Electric in February 2024, for what the company said was tardiness and disrespectful behavior. But, they were not given any warnings for the supposed issues before they were fired, the lawsuit said.
Both men repeatedly complained to the company about the harassment and discrimination, but no action was taken, the lawsuit said.
The couple filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity, which found there was reasonable cause to believe there was retaliation on the basis of sex, and issued them right to sue letters, the lawsuit said.