A federal civil rights lawsuit accuses Toyota Boshoku’s North American headquarters in Erlanger of failing to act on complaints of widespread sexual harassment at one of the company’s Tennessee facilities.
The lawsuit was filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, alleging sexual harassment, a hostile work environment, and retaliation against its women employees.
Six women are named in the lawsuit, which was filed by the EEOC in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee on Tuesday, June 30.
The alleged behavior did not occur at the Erlanger facility, which serves as Toyota Boshoku’s (a Toyota subsidiary that manufactures auto parts) North American HQ.
Instead, it stems from complaints submitted by women employees at a facility in Jackson, Tennessee, whom LINK nky has decided not to name. As the company’s North American HQ, the Erlanger facility houses the HR department, which the lawsuit alleges received complaints but “did nothing.”
The EEOC is suing to provide financial relief to the women and to mandate that the company take steps to ensure similar practices don’t occur again, arguing that the actions against the women named in the suit are sufficient to show the company engaged in systemic discrimination against women as a class. LINK nky has reached out to Toyota Bushoku for comment, and at the time of publication, they have not responded.
“Employers have a duty to protect their female workers, especially in workplaces like automotive production plants where women historically have found few inroads to employment and advancement,” said Delner Franklin-Thomas, director of EEOC’s Memphis District. “By enacting strong policies and procedures to ensure women are free to pursue advancement based on their merits and that all complaints of sexual harassment are taken seriously and adequately investigated, employers can better fulfill their obligations under federal law to create a safe work environment free from harassment.”
The allegations
Two women initially filed charges with the EEOC in November 2022 and July 2024, respectively, according to the lawsuit complaint.
Many of the allegations revolve around the Tennessee plant’s assistant manager, whose name does not appear in the documents. The EEOC found reasonable cause to believe the company had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which establishes guardrails against workplace discrimination, in June 2025.
The suit alleges the plant’s assistant manager cornered the first woman in a conference room in the summer of 2021 and “instructed her to have sex with him or perform oral sex on him to receive a promotion to a Team Leader position, either at the plant or a nearby hotel,” according to the complaint text.
The woman refused, but the manager didn’t stop, allegedly keeping her in the conference room for “over an hour, offering her a pay raise and telling her she ‘had to pick a manager to have sex with,'” according to the lawsuit.
Finally, the manager allegedly let her out of the room after she agreed to consider his offer. The woman was later promoted, but the harassment reportedly didn’t stop–the assistant manager would often lay claim to her as “his,” and at least one other male team leader allegedly “pressed his genitals” against her. The manager also went out of his way to discourage her from reporting the alleged behavior, arguing no one would believe her.
Eventually, the woman quit.
The second woman named in the case alleges the same assistant manager and other male coworkers engaged in various forms of harassment, including touching “their genitals on her back.” The woman’s female team leader, who is among the women named in the suit, came forward with similar issues. The two took their concerns to the HR department, but the leaders allegedly “took no action on the former female Team Leader’s complaints.” Both women were eventually fired.
All these behaviors allegedly took place, the suit argues, in spite of policies against sexual harassment already being in place at the plant.
Other allegations elicited in the complaint include monetary payouts in exchange for sexual favors, crass comments about women’s bodies, team leaders sending sexual propositions in text messages, gatekeeping time off with demands for sexual favors, and various kinds of inappropriate touching, among other allegations.
“Employees at the facility knew if female employees and others complained about sexual harassment by the Assistant Manager, he would cause Defendants (i.e., Toyota Bushoku) to fire the employees,” the suit also alleges.
Finally, the suit alleges “Human Resources ignored the oral and written complaints of sexual harassment from female workers, [and] in most cases, Human Resources failed to investigate.”
The other women named in the suit all allege similar behavior.
The case has not yet entered the discovery phase, and the EEOC is asking anyone who has information about the allegations to contact EEOC attorneys at (901) 685-4590.