He says Target investigated him - not the manager he reported
A former Target store director alleges the retailer fired him for reporting race discrimination.
A longtime Target employee with consistently strong reviews and no prior discipline claims the company terminated him after he raised a team member's complaint about race-based scheduling at another store - and investigated him instead of the manager he reported. The federal complaint was filed September 14, 2026 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The store director joined Target in approximately June 2018 as a senior team leader in human resources, according to the filing. He was promoted repeatedly - to executive team leader in 2019, then store director in February 2022. He ran multiple Philadelphia locations before taking charge of Target's Springfield, Pennsylvania store in May 2024.
His reviews were consistently strong, the complaint states. Target rated him as having "Delivered Exceptional Outcomes" and praised him for building talent, developing leaders, and turning "one of the most operationally challenged stores" into "a sales success story." In 2024, a Target senior vice president recognized his team for a shortage improvement of more than $1.5 million. The filing notes Target never issued him any written discipline before terminating him.
The complaint alleges the store director had raised race discrimination concerns on multiple occasions before the events that led to his firing. Before December 2024, he used Target's Integrity Hotline to report what he believed was discriminatory conduct at another Target store - including schedule manipulation that cut white employees' hours and hiring directives that favored Black applicants, the filing states. He raised the issue again with his district senior director in December 2024 and was told to keep using official channels, according to the complaint.
On April 7, 2025, a team member from the other store called and told the store director that the same manager was still cutting the hours of white employees and favoring Black employees in hiring, the filing alleges. The store director told the team member to report the complaint to the Integrity Hotline. Within hours, he escalated the complaint to his district senior director and a human resources business partner, according to the complaint.
What happened next, the complaint claims, was the opposite of what the store director expected. Target did not investigate the manager he reported. Instead, the filing alleges, his district senior director referred him to the Integrity Hotline for communicating with a team member "off the clock" - even though that communication was the team member's call reporting race discrimination.
On May 2, 2025, according to the complaint, the district senior director arrived at the Springfield store with an investigator. The investigator questioned the store director about "promising promotions" and contacting employees after hours, the filing states. The store director told the investigator about the discrimination complaint. After the interview, the complaint alleges, the district senior director privately told the store director he had "followed protocol."
The filing alleges the investigator did not interview the team member who originally called in the discrimination complaint and did not review the content of that April 7, 2025 call before Target decided to terminate the store director.
The store director became visibly distressed during and after the interview and requested a medical leave the same day, the complaint states. He has Generalized Anxiety Disorder, according to the filing. Target approved leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act from May 2 through July 27, 2025, with job-protected leave running through August 25, 2025.
Seven days after the leave request - and 32 days after the store director escalated the discrimination complaint - the company's human resources business partner sent a termination letter, the complaint alleges. The letter stated he had "engaged in gross misconduct" and that "once you have ended or exhausted any job-protected leave, your employment will be terminated," according to the filing. The complaint states the letter did not specify which communication, which team member, or which policy the store director had supposedly violated.
Target also demanded the return of his keys, laptop, and equipment while he was on approved leave, the filing states. His termination took effect August 25, 2025 - the end of his job-protected leave. Target did not restore him or offer an equivalent position, according to the complaint.
The filing argues the stated reason for the termination was a cover. Target did not discipline the store director he reported, the complaint alleges, and did not discipline that store director for communicating with the plaintiff about the team member's complaint while the team member was off the clock - the same conduct cited against the reporting store director. The filing further alleges Target did not terminate other store directors outside the plaintiff's protected class who communicated with team members about work matters while those employees were off the clock.
The complaint states that as a direct result of the termination, the store director suffered lost wages and benefits, career harm, emotional distress, and worsening of his anxiety disorder. The filing also alleges his wife, who was pregnant, went into pre-term labor within two days of receiving the termination letter.
The complaint brings five counts: race discrimination and retaliation under federal civil rights law, disability discrimination and failure to accommodate under the Americans with Disabilities Act, interference and retaliation under the Family and Medical Leave Act, and parallel claims under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act. The store director seeks back pay, reinstatement or front pay, compensatory and punitive damages, and attorneys' fees.
He filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on September 2, 2025, which was also filed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. The EEOC issued a right-to-sue notice on September 2, 2026.
None of the allegations have been tested, and no court has ruled on the claims.
