Ex-Ye employees allege racist work environment, unpaid labor in lawsuit
Ye, formerly Kanye West, is being sued by eight former employees who say he and former Yeezy Apparel chief of staff Milo Yiannopoulos subjected them to "extreme racism and bullying," as well as long hours of unpaid labor.
Ye, formerly Kanye West, is being sued by eight former employees who say he and former Yeezy Apparel chief of staff Milo Yiannopoulos subjected them to "extreme racism and bullying," as well as long hours of unpaid labor.
The group of ex-employees — comprising young adults and teenagers 14 to 17 years old from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Hungary and Nigeria — suffered "intolerable harassment and discrimination" working on an app that Ye and Yiannopoulos were developing, the plaintiffs' law firm Thigpen Legal said in a statement.
The lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News, was filed against Ye and Yiannopoulos on Saturday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Members of the app development team were “regularly and viciously bullied” for parts of their identities, such as race, gender and sexual orientation, according to the lawsuit, and some team members were called “slaves” in work-related group chats on Discord, it claims. A Discord channel labeled “New Slaves” was also created for new members of the team, the suit alleges.
"Black and African employees were segregated and given less favorable work assignments, and separate 'whites only' working groups were formed," Thigpen Legal said in a statement Sunday. "Minor workers were mocked for their age. In addition, pornography from Defendants’ venture Yeezy Porn was freely shared in the workplace when minors were present."
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