Two decades of service, 12 counts, and a termination letter that gave no reason
A stock supervisor with more than 22 years at Gucci says the company fired him three days after his approved medical leave ended.
That claim sits at the center of a first amended complaint filed August 14, 2026 in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey. It names Gucci America, Inc., an operations manager sued individually, and a group of unidentified corporate and individual defendants. The filing runs to 12 counts. They arise under New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination, the state anti-discrimination statute known as the NJLAD, along with Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act, the federal law giving eligible employees job-protected medical leave.
Gucci hired the worker on or about December 10, 2001 as a stock associate at its store in Short Hills, New Jersey, according to the complaint. Over more than 22 years he moved up to stock supervisor and lead team coordinator. He processed shipments, ran cycle counts, directed team coordinators and sales associates, and acted as an extension of management when the operations manager was absent.
From about 2022, after changes in store management, the complaint alleges he was subjected to "increasingly hostile, demeaning, and discriminatory treatment." It alleges the operations manager "made and participated in discriminatory and demeaning comments" about his race, age, disability, appearance and competence, and told him, in substance, that he was "on the wrong side of 50."
The complaint also states, without identifying who spoke, that he was subjected to a comment that he looked like an "old, fat black rapper" and was called a "monkey." He was referred to with language including "dumbass," according to the filing, and subjected to bullying, excessive scrutiny and disparate criticism.
He has dyslexia, which affects his writing, and management knew about it, the complaint says. It alleges Gucci criticized and disciplined him over written lists and recaps anyway. When he asked for extra training on the SAP inventory program on or about December 19, 2023, none was provided, the filing says.
The complaint sets out repeated contact with human resources. He says he contacted HR on or about September 1, 2022, reported his concerns and said he feared retaliation, then followed up on September 7 and September 15. He met with management on or about October 10, 2022 about bullying and comments on his age. He complained again on or about May 10, 2023, then on May 23, June 28 and August 22 - complaints the filing describes as including "workplace harassment, bullying, ageism, and racism." He contacted HR again in January 2024.
Discipline moved in step with those complaints, the complaint alleges. A written performance counseling dated August 8, 2023 criticized his communication, time management and operational recaps. He disputed parts of it and declined to sign. A final written performance counseling notice followed on November 29, 2023, faulting his written checklist and recap work. The filing alleges the timing, escalation and substance of that discipline support an inference that Gucci applied "heightened scrutiny" and "created a paper record" after he complained.
On or about February 22 or 23, 2024 he told Gucci he needed medical leave after a stroke, according to the complaint. He asked for extra time to complete tasks as an accommodation, a request the filing says was refused. Gucci approved FMLA leave through approximately April 9, 2024. It then granted additional medical leave as a reasonable accommodation, supported by medical documentation submitted through the company's leave administrator, and extended that leave to August 12, 2024. He was medically cleared to return that day and asked to be reinstated. On August 15, 2024, Gucci terminated him effective immediately. The termination letter gave his last date of employment and did not state a reason, the complaint says.
The employer's account appears in the filing too. Gucci contends store leadership decided internally on February 16, 2024 to terminate him at a later date. The complaint says Gucci's position statement identifies the operations manager as the person who communicated that decision to human resources on behalf of store leadership. The worker's answer, according to the filing, is that the alleged decision produced no immediate termination. The company kept employing him, administered his leave, requested and accepted medical documentation, extended the leave as an accommodation, identified a return-to-work date, then discharged him three days after it. He alleges the stated performance rationale was "false, exaggerated, selectively applied, and/or pretextual" - in other words, not the real reason.
Two further points in the filing bear on HR practice. The operations manager is sued personally under the NJLAD's aiding-and-abetting provision, N.J.S.A. 10:5-12(e), on allegations that she "knowingly and substantially participated in, assisted, encouraged, and/or incited" the conduct described. And the complaint says the worker signed an arbitration opt-out form dated May 6, 2015 and does not consent to arbitration, with a jury trial demanded on all issues.
He filed EEOC Charge No. 524-2025-02394 on June 9, 2025 with the EEOC and the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, alleging discrimination and retaliation based on race, color, age and disability. The EEOC issued a Notice of Right to Sue on August 10, 2026, terminated its processing of the charge and closed its case. He is seeking back pay, front pay, reinstatement or front pay in its place, emotional-distress damages, liquidated damages under the FMLA and ADEA, and punitive damages.
None of the allegations have been tested, and no court has ruled on any of the claims.
